Visit the Vatican Museums

Are you travelling to Rome? Here is how to visit the Vatican Museums, the uncontourable holiday in the Italian capital!

The smallest state of the world and also the least populated of the planet, the Vatican is a sovereign enclave located in the city of Rome , housing a population of 921 inhabitants on a total area of 0.439 km2. Going to see the state of Vatican City – also religiously named the Holy See of the Catholic Church – allows a visit through Time. Among all the monuments and religious buildings of the Vatican – the Rooms of Raphael, the Place Saint-Pierre, Saint-Pierre Basilica , the Coupole and the Sistine Chapel - is a colossal museum set that must be visited if you go there: the Vatican Museums. In 2013, 6.6 million people visited the Vatican and its museums, increasing the population by 6,600!

The Vatican Museums exhibit in many rooms huge collections of works of art accumulated over the centuries by the Popes. The desire to create museums in the Vatican dates back to the 16th century, when Pope Jules II moved ancient statues – such as the Apollo of Belvedere and the Laocoon in the Gardens of Belvedere. From then on, the Vatican City became a cultural high place of admiration of Roman antiques. Here are our tips to visit the Vatican Museums.

A brief history of Vatican Museums

The Vatican Museums have a museum set of 12 museums in total, with 5 galleries and 1,400 exhibition rooms. It is one of the largest collections of art in the world. Constituted over the centuries by the Popes, it is a unique witness on the planet of artistic, religious and cultural developments from antiquity to today. Initially, the Vatican Museums were created to welcome the collections of classical archaeology, the Popes often consider themselves as the legitimate heirs of the history of Rome.

It is in the course of the Octogone – the former Cours des Statues – that Pope Jules II decided in 1506, to install an extraordinary set of antique sculptures, including the Apollo du Belvédère and the Laocoon, in the coolly excavated era of Mount Esquilin. Inaugurated in 1771, the first Vatican Museum was the Pio-Clementino Museum. At that time, during the second half of the 18th century, the collections of the pontificate are enriched considerably and the purpose of the museums passes from accumulation to the will to protect the works of historical art.

Coming to the Vatican Museums, art and history lovers will be seduced! The Popes have often been the best patrons and art collectors, and their multisecular tradition of accumulating the best tourism creations in the world ultimately benefit all.

Presentation of Vatican Museums

The twelve Vatican museums are:

• La Pinacothèque vaticane,
• The Modern Religious Art Collection,
• The Pio-Clementino Museum,
• The ethnological missionary museum,
• The Egyptian Gregorian Museum,
• The Etruscan Gregorian Museum,
• The Gregorian profane museum,
• The Christian Museum,
• The Museum of the Vatican Apostolic Bible,
• The Carrot Museum,
• The Chiaramonti Museum,
• The Philatelic and Numismatic Museum.

In groups or in individuals, on a free visit or with a French-speaking tour guide, various options exist to visit the Vatican museums. If you come to visit the Vatican as a whole, there is a complete guided tour that includes the Vatican Museums, St.Peter's Basilica and the Sistine Chapel. Learn more about this guided tour of the Vatican .

What to see in the Vatican Museums?

Coming to the Vatican Museums, we discover major works, some of which date from pre-Roman antiquity. Here is our brief presentation of the most important museums. At the Chiaramonti Museum, there are about a thousand statues of the Roman Empire, as well as the originals of ancient Greece. At the end of the gallery is the Braccio Nuovo. At the Pio-Clementino Museum, dedicated to Greco-Roman statues, you will find the famous Apollo of Belvedere, the group of Laocoon, classified as the most important works of the Vatican. The gallery of geographical maps, made in the 16th century, is one of the first representations of the regions and cities of Italy.

Do not miss the four rooms of Raphael (bedroom of Constantine, room of Heliodore, room of signature (segnatura), room of the Borgo fire). At the Pinacothèque, there are masterpieces of pictorial art: paintings by Giotto, Fra Angelico, Raphaël, Caravaggio, Titien, L. de Vinci, N. Poussin, etc. At the Egyptian Museum, Egyptian antiquities were exhibited in archaeological excavations conducted in Rome: the Romans admired the ancient Egyptian art, many works were brought back to Rome or imity, plagiarized on site. Finally, at the Etruscan Museum, enjoy this time to admire the archaeological objects and pieces found in the Etruscan necropolises: funeral objects and ostentatious signs of riches.

Visit Vatican Museums: Practical Information

Access to museums is Viale Vaticano, north of Vatican and Saint Peter’s Square. Visit schedules must be respected:

• Monday to Saturday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.,
• On 24 and 31 December, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.,
• Open from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the last Sunday of the month (free entry)
• Closed on Sunday,
• Closed on 1 and 6 January, 11 February, 19 March, Sunday and Monday of Easter, 1 May, 29 June, 14 August, 15 August, 8 December, 25 and 26 December.

Here are the rates, which include access to the Sixtine Chapel !

• Free visit (full price): 17 €,
• Free visit (reduced rate): 8 €,
• Guided tour (full price): 33 €,
• Guided tour (reduced rate): 24 €,
• Night tour (free): 21 € (on Friday, from April to October, from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m.).

Tickets are available on the Vatican official website . If there is no more availability or you can’t browse the site well, we recommend you to try it on this site . If you come to visit the Vatican as a whole, there is a complete guided tour that includes the Vatican Museums, St.Peter's Basilica and the Sistine Chapel. Learn more about this guided tour of the Vatican .

Note that to learn the context of artistic creation of works, it is recommended to choose the guided tour! This will prevent you from scrolling in the exhibition rooms to see the works without understanding the socio-historical context of their creation.