Royal Palace of Portici: tickets, opening hours and what to see

Why visit the Royal Palace of Portici

Charles of Bourbon and Maria Amalia wanted a seaside villa at the foot of Vesuvius and had it built from 1738. The Royal Palace of Portici also became the first museum of the Herculaneum finds: the Herculanense Museum, opened in 1758. Medrano, Canevari, Vanvitelli, Fuga, Canart and Bonito all worked on the palace. Pope Pius IX stayed here in 1848, and since 1872 it has been home to the agriculture school, today the Department of Agriculture of the University of Naples Federico II.

A visit combines royal state rooms, a park that runs down towards the sea and a history that ties together Naples, Herculaneum and the first archaeological discoveries.

What to see at the Reggia di Portici

The MUSA route (Museums of Agricultural Sciences) combines the royal rooms with the university’s scientific collections.

Royal Apartment

On the first floor, on the sea side, are the state rooms frescoed by Bonito, La Gamba, Ruta, Gasparini and Bisogni. The ceiling of the Guards’ Hall celebrates good Bourbon government; other rooms still show the redecoration ordered by Murat and Caroline Bonaparte.

Herculanense Museum

A multimedia re-creation of the 1758 museum that Goethe called “the alpha and omega of all collections of antiquities”. It includes the statue of Flora (a Hera Borghese reworked by Giuseppe Canart), bronze replicas of the Mazzocchi Horse and of Marcus Nonius Balbus, and a reconstruction of Piaggio’s machine for unrolling papyri. The Herculaneum originals are at MANN.

Chinese Room and Library

Weekends only: the Chinese Room, with chinoiserie tempera decoration attributed to Antonio Cipullo and the puppet theatre of the royal children, and the historic Library.

Botanical Garden and parks

The Botanical Garden, founded in 1872 by Nicola Antonio Pedicino, covers 7,400 m²: the Pedicino greenhouse, a fern garden, a palm grove and a succulent greenhouse with more than 400 species, including Welwitschia mirabilis. Around it lie the upper and lower parks, the lower one reaching towards the sea, and the university’s science museums: entomology, mineralogy, botany and agricultural machinery.

Reggia di Portici tickets: prices and concessions

• Entry with audio guide €10, reduced €8: Royal Apartment, Herculanense Museum, Botanical Garden (succulent greenhouse excluded). Chinese Room and Library at weekends only.
• Guided tour with entry €15, reduced €13: Saturday and Sunday at 10:00, 11:00 and 12:00, including the Chinese Room, Library and succulent greenhouse.
• On-site guide supplement: €5.
• Reduced: ages 6–17, students, carers of visitors with disabilities.
• Free: under-6s, visitors with disabilities, journalists and licensed guides at work.
• Groups: guided visit €300 for up to 25 paying visitors (€12 for each extra person); schools €200.

A MANN ticket gets you 25% off here through the ExtraMANN scheme. As for the Campania Artecard, the museum speaks of “free or reduced” entry after validation at the desk, but even the Artecard site does not make clear which passes are included, so ask first.

Where to buy tickets

The palace sells tickets only at its ticket office and through its official online shop, reggiadiportici.okticket.it. We know of no Tiqets or GetYourGuide offer for this site, and any page describing it as a platform “exclusive” is wrong. Information: +39 081 2532016, info@museireggiadiportici.it.

We are an independent guide: if you book other activities through the Tiqets or GetYourGuide links on this page we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you.

Getting to Portici from Naples

The palace is on Piazza Carlo di Borbone (formerly Via Università 100) in Portici, on the coast between Naples and Herculaneum. There is free parking inside the grounds while spaces last.

• Trenitalia train to Portici-Ercolano, then about 1 km on foot along Corso Umberto I and Piazza San Ciro.
• Circumvesuviana to Portici Via Libertà, about 950 m through the upper park; or Portici Bellavista, about 1.5 km away.
• Local bus: TLA red line, stop 18.

Timetables, fares and train tips are in our guide to getting around Naples. Portici, incidentally, was the terminus of Italy’s first railway, the Naples–Portici line, opened on 3 October 1839.

Tips for your visit

• Go at the weekend if you want the Chinese Room, the Library and the succulent greenhouse.
• Mind the season: from 15 October last entry moves forward to 16:30.
• Do not come on a Monday, when it is closed.
• Wear comfortable shoes if you also want to explore the Botanical Garden and the parks.

Allow 2–3 hours for the palace, garden and park.

The Royal Palace of Portici and Herculaneum in one day

The most natural pairing is with the ruins of Herculaneum, one Circumvesuviana stop away (Ercolano Scavi). The ruins are open every day: 8:30–19:30 from 16 March to 14 October (last entry 18:00), 8:30–17:00 in winter (last entry 15:30); a full ticket costs €16. A good plan is Herculaneum in the morning and the Royal Palace of Portici in the afternoon, or the other way round at weekends so you can join a 10 or 11 o’clock guided tour. One more link to follow up in Naples: the queen’s porcelain parlour, made for Portici, is now on display at Capodimonte.