Capri celebrates two hundred years of the Blue Grotto with an exhibition on its own myth

The news currently comes from a single source (Sud Notizie, which publishes the programme of the National Museums of Capri); no independent confirmation is available. We state this before going into the details, because on an exhibition calendar cross-checking is the simplest safeguard to ask for, and here it is lacking.

The exhibition is titled “The Myth of Capri. Two Hundred Years since the Discovery of the Blue Grotto (1826-2026)”, curated by Massimo Osanna and Luca Di Franco, and scheduled from 3 July to 18 October 2026. The exhibition reconstructs the building of the island’s international myth starting in 1826, the year of the modern rediscovery of the Blue Grotto.

A bicentenary that speaks of perception, not geology

The formula chosen by the curators is less obvious than it appears. A sea cave existed long before it was discovered: what begins in 1826 is not the grotto, but its status as a destination. The exhibition therefore takes as its subject the way a place becomes an image and the image becomes an attraction — a theme that concerns the history of travel and its representation more than it concerns archaeology.

It is also a choice that says something about the island’s present moment, where the relationship between the number of visitors and the size of the territory is a daily administrative issue. Reconstructing how the attraction was formed means, indirectly, reconstructing how the pressure was formed.

The piece arriving from Caserta

On display in the exhibition is the view of Capri with Monte Solaro painted by Jakob Philipp Hackert in 1792, on loan from the Reggia di Caserta and shown on the island for the first time.

The date matters: the painting predates by thirty-four years the bicentenary the exhibition celebrates. It is therefore an image of Capri prior to the rediscovery of the grotto, and serves as a term of comparison — showing what the island was in the European gaze before the event that would multiply its fame. That a painting depicting Capri had never been exhibited on Capri is, in itself, telling about the system of Italian museum loans: works that recount a place are almost always kept elsewhere.

The venue

The Certosa di San Giacomo, founded in the 14th century, has housed the National Archaeological Museum of Capri since 2024. The designation is recent and changes the nature of the complex: from a venue for events to a museum institution with its own collection and a stable programme. The bicentenary is the first major test of that transformation, and the length of the exhibition — three and a half months, until 18 October — places it beyond the peak tourist season.

September’s programme also includes a conference dedicated to the Blue Grotto of Capri and the Grotto of Tiberius at Sperlonga, scheduled for 15 September with Fabrizio Slavazzi and Cristiana Ruggini. The pairing of the two sites shifts the discussion onto an archaeological level: two coastal caves linked to the Roman imperial presence, treated as a single subject of study rather than as two separate attractions.

What we do not know

We do not know the number of works on display, the complete list of loans, the opening hours and admission conditions, nor the attendance figures recorded since the opening on 3 July. We do not know whether September’s programme includes other events besides the conference on the 15th. All this information, together with verification of the programme, requires a second source, which we do not currently have.

Two dates are confirmed: the conference on 15 September and the closing of the exhibition on 18 October.