Why go
The Sistine Chapel is famous for Michelangelo’s frescoes, yet it also has an active institutional role. This account connects the private vote inside the chapel with the smoke seen from outside and the eventual announcement facing St. Peter’s Square, so those places make sense as one sequence.
The full story
When a papacy ends through death or resignation, the Holy See enters a period called sede vacante, Latin for “vacant seat.” Cardinals handle necessary affairs and prepare the election. The conclave takes place in the Sistine Chapel, inside the Vatican Museums complex. Its name recalls the closed setting in which the electors vote. Cardinal electors cast ballots until a candidate receives the required two-thirds majority. The ballots are burned after voting. Black smoke signals that no pope has been elected; white smoke signals an election after the chosen candidate accepts. The contrast turns a private count inside the chapel into a message that people in St. Peter’s Square can understand. The new pope is then presented from the basilica’s central balcony. On an ordinary Museums visit, the chapel is experienced chiefly through its painted ceiling and Michelangelo’s Last Judgment. Remembering its electoral role changes the room: the frescoes form the setting for a rare decision whose public signs appear above the chapel and across the square. The election itself is closed to visitors.