Discover the treasures of the Vatican Museums

The Borgia Apartments, a suite of six rooms in the Apostolic Palace, were used as the residence of Pope Alexander VI. Between 1492 and 1494, the Italian painter Bernardino di Betto, was commissioned to decorate these rooms with frescoes and paintings.

The Vatican Pinacoteca (Art Gallery) was inaugurated in 1932 and exhibits the paintings inside the Apostolic Palaces. The collection contains about 460 paintings. Some of the important works housed here include Giovanni Bellini's Pietà, Leonardo da Vinci's Saint Jerome in the Wilderness, and Caravaggio's The Entombment of Christ.

Created by Paul VI who wished to reignite the dialogue between the Church and contemporary culture, the collection covers a time span from the end of the nineteenth century up to the early twentieth century. It houses 8,000 paintings, sculptures, and graphic arts by important artists such as Van Gogh, Bacon, Chagall, Carrà, de Chirico, Manzù, Capogrossi, Fontana, Burri, and Matisse.

The Pio-Clementio Museum was founded by Clement XIV Ganganelli (1769-1774) and Pius VI Braschi (1775-1799). Some important pieces here include the Apollo of the Belvedere and Laocoön and His Son, Sala Rotonda, the Gallery of the Statues, the Gallery of the Busts, and the Cabinet of the Masks.

The Chiaramonti Museum was founded by pope Pius VII Chiaramonti, after whom the museum was named. The museum opened in 1806, and it was supposed to display the "three sister arts", aka sculpture, architecture, and paintings together. The Chiaramonti Museum has over 1,000 antique sculptures on display.

Founded by Pope Gregory XVI, the Gregoriano Etrusco Museum was one of the first museums dedicated to Etruscan antiques. It largely houses artifacts unearthed in the excavations carried out in the years before the museums' inauguration in the sites of important cities of ancient Etruria. You will also find a section dedicated to Roman antiquities and Greek figurative vases.

Spread across nine rooms, the Gregorian Egyptian Museum features a collection from Roman Egypt and from Egyptian-influenced Rome. Many Egyptian-inspired Roman works such as items from Hadrian's Villa in Tivoli are also featured here. You will also find artifacts from the Ancient Near East, and Ancient Egypt.

The last room in the Vatican Museums is the Sistine Chapel, which was constructed in place of the old Cappella Magna restored between 1477 and 1480 at the behest of Pope Sixtus IV. The walls of the chapel are decorated with false drapes, and frescoes depicting the Stories of Moses and of Christ and the portraits of the Popes.