Vatican Museum Overview

The Vatican museums are located in the Vatican City of Rome and are one of the most popular public museums in the world. The church is known for its collection of priceless art and other sculptures that are mostly found in Vatican City. The museum first opened in the 16th century when Pope Julius II bought his “Ode to snake wrestling”, and the subsequent popes kept adding to the collection of the museum, and finally the museum was opened to the public in the year 1771 by Pope Clement XIV. In today’s day, the Vatican museums are a collection of various museums on the same premises that have more than 70,000 collections but only 20,000 arts, artifacts, and objects are on display to the public.


Having Vatican Museum tickets means that you have a chance to experience a museum that will stay with you forever. Almost 25,000 people visit the museums every day and they are all awestruck by the extensive collection of art and works. You can find some of the most famous artists and works starting from Michelangelo to Raphael and Bernini. The Vatican museums are also home to the famous Sistine Chapel which is known for its stunning ceiling.


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Vatican Museum Tours

Vatican Museums & Sistine Chapel: Skip The Line
Vatican Museums & Sistine Chapel: Skip The Line

The Skip the Line Vatican Museum tickets give you a direct entry to the museum and the Sistine Chapel and let you avoid the long queue. You can utilize the time you saved by exploring the four exceptional collections, classical sculptures, renaissance masterpieces, the gorgeous collections from Egypt and Etruscans. After taking in the famous “Pine Cone” you will end up at the Sistine Chapel where the famous artist Michelangelo created more than 300 artworks on 500 square meters of the ceiling, only to come back 22 years later to create “the last judgment” on the entire ceiling just above the altar.


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Vatican Gardens, Vatican Museums & Sistine Chapel: Guided Tour
Vatican Gardens, Vatican Museums & Sistine Chapel: Guided Tour

Skip the line, take a guided tour and stroll through the Sistine Chapel and Vatican Museums to get your eyes on artifacts of this smallest country of the world. Behind the vast museum is one of the most private gardens in the world, the Vatican gardens. The garden is spread across an area of 23 hectares of land rich in flower beds, ancient sculptures, fountains, and buildings from the medieval age. With the gardens, also explore the stunning museum of the Vatican City.


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Vatican Museums: Skip The Line + Guided Tour
Vatican Museums: Skip The Line + Guided Tour

Skip the line + guided tour is the best package of Vatican Museum Tickets that you can book. The guided tour is for two hours and these two hours will be the most enlightening two hours of your Rome trip and the skip the line scheme will help you breeze past the long queues and will give you extra time to take in the beauty of the arts and artifacts in the museum.


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Vatican Museums & Sistine Chapels: Skip The Line + Rome Bus Tour
Vatican Museums & Sistine Chapels: Skip The Line + Rome Bus Tour

This is a combo Vatican Museum ticket where you will be given a tour of Rome on a bus as well as you will avoid the long lines at the museum. There are many beautiful places to visit in Rome, and a bus tour is one of the most convenient ways to do that. The bus tour will also include the amazing museum of Vatican City and you will have a direct pass into the museum without any lines.


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Colosseum, Vatican Museums & Sistine Chapel: Full-Day Tour
Colosseum, Vatican Museums & Sistine Chapel: Full-Day Tour

The Vatican City and Colosseum are two of the most popular as well as beautiful places in Rome and lakhs of people come here every year to have one of the most enlightening trips of their lives. This ticket is the only package that includes the sites of both Vatican City and the Colosseum like Vatican museums, the Sistine Chapel, St. Peter’s Basilica, Roman Forum, and palatine hill in one day. You will have an English speaking guide who will give you a detailed tour of the Roman buildings and gruesome battles held in them in history.


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Vatican Museums Breakfast & Sistine Chapel: Morning Entrance
Vatican Museums Breakfast & Sistine Chapel: Morning Entrance

Vatican Museum tickets morning entrance includes the visit to all the galleries of the museums as well as the stunning Sistine Chapel. But one of the most attractive things about this package is the inclusion of breakfast when you arrive early in the morning. You will be served many American dishes for breakfast at the gorgeous setup at Cortile della Pigna. You will be the first ones to visit the Sistine Chapel just when it opens and will get a tour of the museum before the crowd arrives.


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What's Inside the Vatican Museums

Bramante Staircase
Bramante Staircase

Pope Julius II of the 16th century commissioned the original Bramante Staircase, which connected the Belvedere Palace to a Roman street. These unique steps served as a raised pathway, enabling the Pope to access his private residence by carriage. While the original staircase remains inaccessible to the general public, a modern interpretation of it has been created, which visitors can now ascend and explore. These staircases bear a striking resemblance to the intricate structure of human DNA and are designed to prevent those ascending from seeing those descending.

The Raphael Rooms
The Raphael Rooms

The Raphael Rooms encompass four distinct chambers within the Vatican Palace, serving as the dwelling for Pope Julius II. Crafted by the renowned artist Raphael, these rooms are aptly named after him. Each room boasts its own distinctive beauty and serves as a canvas for various religious and mythological narratives. While Raphael himself contributed numerous artworks, his untimely demise in 1520 prompted his students from the School of Raphael to finalize his unfinished creations.


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Gregorian Etruscan Museum
Gregorian Etruscan Museum

The Gregorian Etruscan Museum was founded by Pope Gregory XVI in 1836 and was reorganized in the year 1924. The Gregorian Etruscan Museum is a major part of the Vatican Museums and is a proud home to the gorgeous collection of the Etruscan excavation and some artifacts from the Regolini-Galassi tomb and the Etruscan jewelry. The museum was open to the public in the year 1839 and houses one of the most stunning Italian paintings.

Sistine Chapel
Sistine Chapel

The Sistine Chapel is a rectangular building built in bricks and has six arc windows on the main walls with a vaulted ceiling. The outside of the Sistine Chapel is unadorned and not that attractive but the inside of the Sistine Chapel is decorated with frescoes and paintings by many world-renowned painters. One of the most famous attractions of the Sistine Chapel is the frescoes painted by the famous artist, Michelangelo on the 500 square feet of the ceiling of the altar, to return again after years to finish the entire ceiling with his frescoes.

Gallery of Statues and Hall of Busts
Gallery of Statues and Hall of Busts

The location that now houses the Gallery of Statues and Hall of Busts was originally a section of the loggia within the Palazzetto of Innocent VIII Cybo in Belvedere. The loggia's walls were adorned with painted frescoes depicting landscapes and small cupids, which remain visible to this day. During Pope Clement XIV's efforts to establish a museum, these walls were enclosed, giving rise to the creation of the Hall of Busts.

Vatican Gardens
Vatican Gardens

The Vatican Gardens are one of the most private and largest gardens in the world. The Vatican Gardens are situated behind the Museums of the Vatican and are full of arts and artifacts of the medieval age. The gardens were built when Pope Nicholas III moved his residence here from Lateran Palace when he built walls, meadows, and gardens. The gardens spread across an area of 23 hectares and are rich in flower beds, ancient sculptures, buildings, and fountains from the medieval areas, where the pope often visited to stay alone for some time.


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Plan Your Visit to Vatican Museum

Know Before You Go
Best Time To Visit
How to Reach
Vatican City Museum Entrance
Vatican Museum Dress Code
Tips for Visiting Vatican Museum
Know Before You Go

Vatican Museum Hours

The Vatican Museum remains open all through the year. Certainly, here are the Vatican Museum hours:


Monday to Saturday: 9:00 AM - 6:00 PM (Last entry at 4:00 PM)

Closed on Sundays, except the last Sunday of each month: 9:00 AM - 2:00 PM (Last entry at 12:30 PM)


Please note that these hours can vary on holidays or special occasions.


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FAQs

What is the maximum group size for guided tours of the Vatican?

    The maximum number of people in a guided tour can be up to 10 .

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