Discover the Treasures of the Vatican Museums with us! You will see one of the biggest art collections in the whole world, pieces of art collected by the Popes during the centuries. Everything will be explained by an official, English Speaking guide, who will help you select the best pieces of art and answer all your questions.
What are the Treasures of the Vatican Museums and when were the Museums founded?
The Vatican Museums were founded by Pope Julius II in 1506, but they were only opened to the public in 1771 by Pope Clement XIV. The idea behind the Vatican Museums seems to have originated from a single marble sculpture, acquired by the Vatican 500 years ago. The statue depicted Laocoön, the priest of Greek Mythology who tried to convince the Trojans not to accept the wooden horse from the Greeks. The statue was found on January 1506 in a vineyard around the Church of Saint Mary the Major, in Rome and Michelangelo was asked to inspect and study the statue. The artist suggested to the Pope to buy the statue from the vineyard’s owner and exhibit it to the public inside the Vatican.
Which are the different sections of the Vatican Museums and what do they contain?
The Treasures of the Vatican Museums are exhibited inside several rooms and Galleries, which cover a length of 7 kilometers (around 4,50 miles!): the usual route of a guided tour runs for about three hours and cover the most important works of art and architecture in the Museums, plus the Sistine Chapel and the Basilica. Talking of the Vatican Museums specifically, here are all the rooms and galleries you can lose yourself into:
- Vatican Pinacoteca (Picture Gallery): it contains 18 rooms with pictures arranged in chronological order, with 460 works that date back from the Middle Ages to 1800. If you love art you can’t skip a visit to this Gallery! A curiosity: many of the works exhibited were recovered from France by sculptor Antonio Canova, after the Congress of Vienna (1815), a priceless collection of pictures by Giotto, Leonardo, Raphael and Caravaggio!
- Modern Religious Art Collection: with works by some of the most important artist ever, like Francis Bacon, Carlo Carrà, Marc Chagall, Salvador Dalí, Giorgio de Chirico, Felice Mina, Paul Gauguin, Wassily Kandinsky, Henri Matisse and Vincent Van Gogh
- Pio-Clementino Museum, founded by Pope Clement XIV in 1771 to serve as a collection space for works from the Ancient times and from the Renaissance. If you love sculpture you can’t miss these museums and its collection, which were later expanded by Pope Pius VI and today includes also Ancient Greek and Roman sculptures. It is the biggest exhibition complex in the Vatican Museums, with 12 rooms, it is impossible not to spot it! The most important work inside the Pio-Clementino Museum is a Roman copy of a bronze Greek Statue by Lisippo (320 b.C.), depicting an athlete after a competition. He is representing in the act of wiping sweat with a strigil, a kind of razor used in the Ancient times to remove dust, sweat and residues of oil and sand, which the athletes used to sprinkle on their bodies before the races. The importance of this statue derives from the fact that it is the first time Ancient Greeks create a statue that can be admired only by observing it around, not just by admiring its front. In the Octagonal Court you will admire the Apollo Belvedere, a Roman copy of the original Greek and another Roman copy of the famous group of the Laocoön we were talking about above. Other important Rooms included in the Pio-Clementino Museum are the Animal Room, the Candelabra Room, the Round Room, the Muses Room, and the Statues Room.
- The Missionary-ethnological Museum, founded by Pio XI in 1926, hosts religious works coming from all over the world. Most have been given to Popes by important art collectors and noblemen during the centuries.
- The Gregorian-Egypt Museum is a must for all lovers of Egypt! It was founded by Pope Gregory XVI in 1839: its 9 rooms contain rare examples from Ancient Egypt, like papyri, the famous Book of the Deads and the Grassi Collection. Two more rooms display objects from ancient Mesopotamia and Assyria. The most interesting things to see in this museum are the mummies! These are usually a favorite among kids! They are kept in precious wooden coffins, beautifully engraved: some even date back to the 8th-century b.C.
- The Gregorian-Etruscan Museum, also founded by Pope Gregorius XVI, contains 8 galleries and hosts important pieces from the Etruscan period, like vases, sarcophagi, and bronzes coming from different archaeological sites.
- Other museums displaying treasures of the Vatican Museums are: Pio-Christian Museum, Gregorian-prophan Museum, the Chariot Pavillion (this includes the white chariot where Pope John Paul II was sitting when a man tried to kill him in 1981), the Philatelic and Numismatic Museum, the Apostolic Vatican Library Museum, the Chiaramonti Museum and the Vatican Palaces.
The Treasures of the Vatican Museums include also beautiful Galleries (Lapidaria Gallery, The so-called “New Wing” gallery, Candelabra Gallery, Tapestry Gallery, Gallery of Maps), Chapels (the world-famous Sistine Chapel, frescoed by Michelangelo, the Niccoline Chapel, usually closed to the public, only accessible by special permit and the Urban III Chapel) and Rooms (Chariot Room, Pius V Room, Sobieski Room, Mary Immaculate Room, Raphael Rooms, Raphael Loggia, Chiaroscuri Room and the Borgia Apartment).
How to visit the Treasures of the Vatican Museums?
If you are planning a visit to Rome you can’t miss a tour of the Vatican! To be sure you avoid the queue (there is one to enter the Museums and one to enter the Basilica of St.Peter’s, and it can last for hours!) contact us and book a guided tour with skip-the-line tickets. We have tours to suit your all needs: private tours, semi-private tours, small group tours, both available very early in the morning, in the morning or in the early afternoon. For private visits we can also grant special entrances to the Niccoline Chapel, the Bramante Staircase and the Cabinet of the Masks, areas closed to the public, only accessible by special permits!
