National Museum of San Martino

Brief information

The San Martino Museum occupies not a purpose-built museum building, but the former Carthusian Charterhouse of Saint Martin. After the unification of Italy, the monastery was closed, its grounds were declared a national monument, and in 1866 a museum opened here. As a result, the place can be read in two directions at once: as a collection about Naples and southern Italy, and as a former monastic space where some rooms still recall its earlier life.

The collections are arranged on two floors. The source text especially presents the museum as a set of varied material testimonies: from theatrical sketches and decorative objects to weapons, porcelain, seagoing vessels, and miniature religious scenes. What matters is not only the range of objects, but also the contrast of scale: alongside cabinet-sized graphic works and small sculpture, full-size vessels are mentioned here.

What to Notice First

It is worth comparing the large-scale and more intimate parts of the museum. In the shipbuilding section there are three full-size vessels: a 24-oared Neapolitan launch, a Turkish galley, and a launch associated with King Umberto and Queen Margherita. They remind us that the museum tells not only about art, but also about the maritime side of life in southern Italy.

The other pole is the Quarto del Priore, the prior’s quarters of the former monastery. It contains evidence of monastic daily life: portraits of priors and Carthusians, stained glass, mirrors, and painting on glass. In the courtyard, the sculptural group “Madonna and Child with St. John” by Pietro Bernini is noted separately. And in the crypt the scale changes again: hundreds of miniature religious sculptures present the same sacred subjects as a carefully assembled small world.