Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli
Grand royal collection of Greek and Roman antiquities from Pompeii, Herculaneum and the Farnese family.
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About this audio guide
This guide to the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli traces the strange life of what the Bourbon court called the Secret Cabinet: erotic frescoes, statues and charms dug out of Pompeii and Herculaneum, judged too obscene for the public. In 1819 the future king Francis the First toured the museum with his wife and daughter and was mortified by what he saw, ordering the material locked away and viewable only under a permit from the Ministry of the Interior. Grand Tour visitors fresh off ships from London and Paris found a faster route past that rule than any form could offer. The same rooms sit beside the Farnese Hercules and Farnese Bull, statues Charles of Bourbon inherited through his mother's family to found this museum in the first place.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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