The main facade of the Royal Palace faces the spacious Piazza del Plebeshito, named after the 1946 referendum that led to the fall of the Italian monarchy. the fall of the Italian monarchy. Work on the palace was begun in the 1600s by by Domenico Fontana. The client was the Spanish viceroy Don Ferranto Ruiz de Castro. Castro, who wanted a residence worthy of the Spanish crown, worthy of the Spanish crown. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, the building was enlarged and after a fire in 1837 it was rebuilt with neoclassical elements by Gaetano Genovese. The long façade is crowned by a clock and a belfry. In its lower floor in 1888 Vanvitelli created eight niches with statues of the rulers of Naples, who had ruled over Naples since 1140. since 1140. They are Roger, Frederick II Hohenstaufen, Charles I of Anjou, Alfonso I of Aragon, Charles V, Charles III of Bourbon, Joachim Murat, and Victor Emmanuel II..
The interior of the palace has 17 rooms, mostly neoclassical, empire and Neo-Classical, Empire and neo-Ampire, full of art objects. It houses the Court Theatre, built by J.Fuga in the second half of the XVIII century, a huge chapel, decorated with colourful stones, with a display of art objects. with colourful stones and an exhibition of ecclesiastical art, a gigantic terrace with fountains, and the National Library. fountains, and the National Library with the famous papyri from Herculaneum. Herculaneum. In 1717 this palace sheltered Tsarevich Alexei, the son of Peter the Great, who was taken from here to Russia to his death.
