At Christmas time every year the Chateau Royal d'Amboise sets up its impressive Neapolitan nativity scene.
Neapolitan churches have featured nativity scenes at Christmas time since at least the 11th century. At first the figures were made of polychrome painted and carved wood and were life size, stood in front of a painted background. After the 16th century the size had begun to reduce and the background began to be increasingly three dimensional panoramas of the City of Naples. With the 18th century Enlightenment and the Baroque style, the figures were put into secular locations, in wealthy private homes, and an attention to detail and hyper realism became a hallmark.