A tour taking you to some of the highest expressions of universal art, where Beauty and Faith meet in a unique fusion. A landmark absolutely not to be missed when in Rome.
The ticket does not include multiple purchases for groups with a guide who intend to book the same slot.
Office located at Piazza Pio XII, 9 (near Saint Peter’s Square)
How to Reach Us:
Date and time of your visit must be pre-booked.
Visits are available every day except Sundays and Vatican festivities
See Vatican Museums map
For prices dedicated to pre-costituted groups, parishes and ecclesial realities write to romacristiana@orp.org
For more information visit the website www.omniavaticanrome.org
USEFUL INFORMATION
Nearly all sectors of the Vatican Museums are accessible to disabled visitors. To help you on your visit, however, the Vatican Museums recommend a barrier-free itinerary that makes it easy to reach the main services and points of interest.
If needed, wheelchairs are bookable for free (email accoglienza.musei@scv.va) or upon request at the "Special Permits" desk in the entrance hall (valid ID is required). For further special needs, please contact Vatican Museums directly on + 39 06 69883145 - + 39 06 69884676 - + 39 06 69884947.
Entrance is free and with no queue for all visitors with a medically certified disability of 74% or higher. Free entrance can also be extended to the chaperone in case the disabled visitor is not self-sufficient. Free tickets for disabled visitors and their chaperones are not bookable online but are issued, upon presentation of the relevant documents, directly at the “Special Permits” and/or “Reception” desks in the entrance hall of the Vatican Museums.
To know the sectors that can be visited, the opening and closing days, the times and dates for visiting the Vatican Museums at night, consult the website
This site will plunge visitors into the great path of the history of humanity from the ancient Egyptians to the present day, passing through all phases of the development of art as an expression of the greatness of humans and their relationship with the divine.
The highest masterpieces of all time and the most precious heritage of several civilisations represent the arches of a bridge harmoniously linking the past, present and future of humankind.
Several civilisations, including the Egyptian, Assyrian, Greek, Roman, the great historical phases of the European Middle Ages, of the Renaissance, and of all the centuries to the present day come together in a single location.
A unique witness of the human spiritual adventure towards ever new accomplishments in beauty and faith, and towards ever higher human values.
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The Vatican Museums are divided into a series of theme museums that cover exhaustively a vast historical and artistic sphere. Created in different historical periods, they are the product of the religious, Catholic and artistic vision of a series of Pontiffs from the 16th century to the present day.
The Sistine Chapel owes its name to Pope Sixtus IV della Rovere who in 1477 had the walls of the pre-existing Cappella Magna frescoed by a group of artists that included Perugino, Botticelli, Ghirlandaio and Rosselli with stories from the life of Christ and Moses and had the ceiling covered with a starry sky.
Decades later, in 1508, Julius II della Rovere decided to modify the decorations assigning the job to Michelangelo Buonarroti. In four years the Florentine artist produced the great cycle representing the stories from the Genesis. The vault of the Sistine Chapel includes several frescoes and themes divided into nine scenes, from the Creation to the Fall of man, from the Deluge to the new beginning of humanity with Noah.
Towards the end of 1533, Clement VII de’ Medici commissioned Michelangelo to paint on the wall of the altar in the Chapel the Universal Judgment, a titanic task that the artist completed in the autumn of 1541.
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The gallery is an extremely rich collection of paintings that belonged to the various Pontiffs, exhibited in 18 rooms in chronological order from the Middle Ages to the 19th century. The collection currently consists of 460 paintings, including absolute masterpieces by great artists such as Giotto, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Perugino and Caravaggio.
Around 1790, Pope Pius VI created an first collection of 118 paintings produced by the many artists who had worked for the Vatican and the State of the Church since the 14th century. During Napoleon’s invasion of Italy in 1797 many masterpieces had been taken to Paris as spoils of war and only returned to Rome after the fall of the emperor. When they were returned, the idea came about to create a gallery and open it to the public. This earliest set of works developed during the years reaching the 460 paintings of today. The collection boasts masterpieces by the main painters of Italian art history.
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The Raphael rooms are a sequence of four rooms and are so-called because frescoed by the great painter from Urbino and the apprentices of his atelier.
Their order is as follows: Room of the Fire, Room of the Signatura, Room of Heliodorus and Room of Constantine.
Accompanied by an official guide you will discover the artistic treasures preserved in the Pope's museum.
