a cave was dug. The hole was later used as a cellar for the conservation of wine and meat. The cave was accessed via a well-shaped staircase which is still extant. Villa Belvedere was very popular among the Neapolitan upper classes and the local nobles, including the Bourbons; during the summer vacations of queen Maria Carolina of Habsburg-Lorraine, wife of Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies, magnificent parties were held, which attracted huge crowds. In fact, in the months of May and October, the villa was open to the public; so that on Thursdays and Sundays it was possible to attend musical concerts, and, later, even popular jousting and tournaments. The popularity of the villa did not decrease under French rule: the building was one of the favorite resorts of Gioacchino Murat. Inside the villa there was a precious collection of paintings and sculptures, which was assembled by Ferdinand, who in turn had inherited the prestigious collection of his father, while the vaults are still embellished with frescoes by artists such as Luca Giordano. Ferdinand van den Eynde's precious art collection (which included several paintings by Luca Giordano) was later inherited by the Carafas and the Colonnas, as his two daughters, Elizabeth and Giovanna (Joanna), married the heirs of the Carafa and Colonna families, respectively. Between the first and second half of the 17th century, through his commerce between Flanders and Naples (which included also artworks) Van den Eynde, an avid art collector and art dealer, favored the circulation in Naples of new tastes and stylistic currents. In his collection, therefore, there were also several works by notable foreign artists. As regards Giordano's paintings in Van de Eynde's collection, included in the dowries of his two daughters, in The Lives of the Artists it is reported: [A]mong these works (by Luca Giordano), noted as in a catalog, I learned that those that belonged to D. Ferdinando Vandeneinden, were then assigned, with the other rich furnishings among the very rich gifts, to two Princes, namely that of Sonnino, whose name is D. Giuliano Colonna Romano, and to that of Belvedere, whose name is D. Carlo Carafa, our Neapolitan, to whom the aforementioned D. Ferdinando married his two beautiful, honest and noble daughters Architecture and current state of conservation The architecture of the villa, as it appears today, is the result of about five centuries of stratification, with works and adjustments that