The chapel, dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, was built in the mid-seventeenth century by architect Francesco Antonio Picchiatti. It was used for religious ceremonies of the court and was the seat of Kapellmeisters, a position held by some of the greatest composers from the Neapolitan musical school, such as Alessandro Scarlatti. Some of the original seventeenth-century decoration is still visible, i.e. the frescoes between the windows depicting Scenes from the Old Testament.
The angels on the walls of the central nave were painted by Giuseppe Cammarano (1808-1815), during the reign of Joachim Murat. The side naves were decorated by painters from the Naples Academy of Fine Arts; Domenico Morelli painted the canvas on the vault of the central nave representing The Assumption of the Virgin (1870).
An altar in marble and semi-precious stones dominates the apse. Built in 1674 for the church of Santa Teresa degli Scalzi, it was transferred to the Royal Palace following the suppression of monastic orders during the Napoleonic period. The main access door, made in the sixteenth century in painted wood imitating bronze, comes from the chapel of the old Viceroyal Palace, dedicated to the Immaculate Conception and to saint James of Compostela; the eight-pointed star and the pilgrim’s shell, recurring in the decoration, refer respectively to the Virgin Mary and to saint James.
