Museo Storico Musicale del Conservatorio di San Pietro a Majella

The Museum of Music at the San Pietro a Majella Conservatory presents historic instruments, portraits and objects connected with Naples's musical heritage. Its collection includes a Stradivari harp, keyboards associated with Cimarosa and Paisiello, and more than two hundred portraits of musicians.

Why it matters

The museum documents a conservatory that has trained musicians for centuries and remains an active institution. Its collections connect the history of Neapolitan music education with the wider story of European musical life.

What to notice

The collection includes a small harp made by Antonio Stradivari in 1681 and a vis-à-vis piano-harpsichord built by Johann Andreas Stein in 1783. Two keyboard instruments presented by Catherine II of Russia to Cimarosa and Paisiello reflect Naples's international musical reputation. The picture gallery contains more than 200 portraits, including works associated with Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, Filippo Palizzi and Francesco Paolo Michetti. Liturgical furnishings from the adjacent church of San Pietro a Majella recall the complex's earlier religious use.

Context and history

The conservatory developed from charitable music schools founded in Naples between the 16th and 17th centuries. The institutions merged between 1797 and 1807; in 1826 the royal conservatory moved into the former Celestine convent on Via San Pietro a Majella. The museum's collections began in 1868, and the display was inaugurated by director Francesco Cilèa on 3 December 1925.