VATICAN MUSEUMS

Inside the Vatican City State the Vatican Museums were founded by Pope Julius II in the sixteenth century to house the greatest works of art accumulated over the centuries by the Popes. They were opened to the public by Pope Clement XIV in 1771.

The Sistine Chapel and the papal apartments frescoed by Michelangelo and Raphael also form part of the large collection and can be admired closely by visitors who crowd the museums every year.

The Vatican Museums complex is the most visited museum in Italy and one of the most visited in the world and includes several museums: the Vatican Pinacoteca, the collection of modern religious art, the Pio-Clementino museum, the missionary museum,Ethnological Museum, the Egyptian Gregorian Museum, the Etruscan Gregorian Museum, the Pio Cristiano Museum, the Gregoriano Profano Museum, the carriages pavilion, the Philatelic and Numismatic Museum, the Vatican Library's museums, the Chiaramonti Museum, the Vatican Palaces with the galleries, chapels and the various rooms.

The entrance to the museums is from Vatican avenue, near Risorgimento square, if you are in Rome Do not miss this great casket of art!