vatican museum

At First Sight

The museum complex is one of the oldest and most visited in the world and it is part of the Vatican City State. It owns one of the richest art collections, with Roman magnificent statues and mosaics, marvellous tapestries, the Map Gallery and the Sistine Chapel. The origins of the Vatican Museums date back to the 16th century, when Pope Julius II established a collection of classical sculpture including the famous Laocoon, considered to be one of the most famous and influential representatives of antiquity to survive. Described by Pliny the Elder as superior to all works, it was discovered in 1506 in a vineyard in Rome. Another precious statue is the Apollo Belvedere, that seems to have just released an arrow from the bow.

Two monumental red porphyry sarcophagi are believed to have held the remains of Helena and Costantia, mother and daughter of the Emperor Constantine the Great, which decreed tolerance for Christianity in the Roman Empire.

The great Gallery of Maps contains a series of painted topographical maps of Italy commissioned by Pope Gregory XIII, worldwide famous for the introduction of the Gregorian Calendar in 1582, still in use.

The Sistine Chapel, the place where cardinals gather for the "conclave" to elect new popes. It was built in the 15th century by Pope Sixtus IV and it is world-renowned for the Michelangelo most celebrated and sublime frescoes. Between 1508 and 1512 Michelangelo painted the vault with the Creation of the World and years later he added the Last Judgment.