The Villa Floridiana is a large park in the Vomero

Vomero

Vomero is a central district of Naples, with a population of about 48,000.-Geography:Vomero is a hilly and heavily urbanized area in the center of Naples...

 quarert in Naples

Naples

Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...

, southern Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

. It is overlooks the western Neapolitan suburbs of Chiaia

Chiaia

Chiaia is a neighbourhood on the seaside in Naples, bounded by Piazza Vittoria on the east and Mergellina on the west. The most prominent landmark in the area is the large public park known as the Villa Comunale...

 and Mergellina

Mergellina

.Mergellina is a section of the city of Naples in the Campania region of Italy. It is at the west end of the seaside road, via Caracciolo, one mile away from the main port of Naples.-Overview:...

.

The villa dates from 1816 when Ferdinand I

Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies

Ferdinand I reigned variously over Naples, Sicily, and the Two Sicilies from 1759 until his death. He was the third son of King Charles III of Spain by his wife Maria Amalia of Saxony. On 10 August 1759, Charles succeeded his elder brother, Ferdinand VI, as King Charles III of Spain...

 of the House of Bourbon

House of Bourbon

The House of Bourbon is a European royal house, a branch of the Capetian dynasty . Bourbon kings first ruled Navarre and France in the 16th century. By the 18th century, members of the Bourbon dynasty also held thrones in Spain, Naples, Sicily, and Parma...

, King of the Two Sicilies, acquired the property.

Between 1817 and 1819 the architect Antonio Niccolini reconstructed the building and the surrounding gardens. The director of the Botanical Gardens, Friedrich Dehnhardt, planted oaks, pines, palms, cypresses and a large selection of flowers in the gardens.

The King then donated the property as the site for a vacation residence to his morganatic wife, Lucia Migliaccio Partanna, duchess of Floridia, from which the villa has taken its name. The neoclassical

Neoclassical architecture

Neoclassical architecture was an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century, manifested both in its details as a reaction against the Rococo style of naturalistic ornament, and in its architectural formulas as an outgrowth of some classicizing...

residence and surrounding gardens were built between 1817-19. The Villa currently houses the Duke of Martina National Museum of Ceramics.