Vatican Museums

A courtyard of ancient statues, rooms painted for a pope and pictures taken from church altars all belong to the Vatican Museums. As you choose what to see, notice the different settings. Some rooms were made to display collections. Others were places where popes lived, received visitors or prayed, and the decoration still belongs to those earlier uses. The collection of Pope Julius II took shape around the sculptures in what is now the Octagonal Court. Laocoön and Apollo Belvedere became part of that early gathering. Later popes added museums for ancient objects, paintings and art from other periods and places. In the eighteenth century, Clement XIV and Pius VI developed the Pio Clementino Museum as a public museum. The Pinacoteca gained its purpose-built home much later, in 1932. You can follow the ancient bodies, spend time with paintings or read the stories covering the palace walls. The Sistine Chapel belongs to the museum visit. St Peter’s Basilica has its own visit arrangements.