The Correale Museum is located on what was once land belonging to the territory called Cape of Cervo or Xeres, given to Zottola Correale in 1428 by Queen Joanna II of Angevin.

The small building Correale built there was restructured in 1700 and in the early 1900s, with Pompeo and Alfredo Correale became a sort of cultural coterie.

On their deaths the Correales donated both the land and building, with all the works of art it contained, to the city of Sorrento.

The Correale is a Museum “Without kilometres of corridors in attendance, mansize” said the late Franco Russoli. In fact, wandering through its twenty rooms is like visiting an old patrician house with all its furnishings, its little unknown master pieces from which it’s hard to detach oneself.

What does this small but precious jewel-case contain? On the ground floor is the archeological section with Greek and Roman remins found on Sorrentine territory as well as remains from the antique Cathedral of St. Renato.

On the same floor is a room dedicated to Tasso which holds his precious works along with the poets funeral mask.

On the two upper floors are precious pieces of 1700s furniture in Neapolitan and Sicilian style porcelain by Doccia and Giustiniani, Venetian glass and statuettes from 1750 by the Royal Capodimonte manufacture.

The walls hold works by major painters from the Neapolitan School of the 1600s and 1700s like Luca Giordano, Salvator Rosa, Giacomo Del Po, De Mura, il Vaccaro as well as the most prestigious names from the “School of Posillipo" such as Duclere, Pitloo and Giacinto Gigante who with their water-colours alone merit a visit to the museum as these are considered their finest works.

Not to be missed is the room dedicated to the old masters of Sorrentine marquetry like Damora and Gargiulo. Another sight which is not to be missed is the view from the orange grove which ends in a Belvedere overlooking the entire Gulf.

E-mail: museocorreale1@virgilio.it