Extending for over 0.44 square kilometres right in the heart of Rome, the Vatican City houses within its historical buildings some of the most important artistic testimony of all time.

Major architectonic works such as St. Peter’s Basilica and the Sistine Chapel are two fine examples.
Located within the small State whose independence from Italy was sanctioned by the Lateran Pact of 1929, are  the Vatican Palaces, executed and enriched by the most outstanding artists of the Renaissance and which have been residence to the Popes as from the beginning of the XV century.

To the artistic splendour of the Pontifical Ministries, the Logge and the Papal Apartments, may be added the prestigious collections contained in the Vatican Museums and the collection of manuscripts and volumes of the Apostolic Library.

Realised in 1470 by the architect Giovanni Dolci for Pope Sextus IV, the Sistine Chapel was born as a defence fortress to the western Papal Palaces. In later times and up to our present time, the squat structure hosts the Conclave of Cardinals and High Functions of a religious nature. Pacific use of the Capella Sistina - which bears the name of its founder, rendered the consequent embellishment of the building indispensable and was made possible through the works of Perugino,  Botticelli,  Signorelli,  Ghirlandaio and Rosselli. During the course of his Pontificate, Pope Julius II ordered Michelangelo to complete the painting of the area as yet not  frescoed. Michelangelo did much more than that. From 1508 t0 1512, he painted more than three hundred biblical figures taken from Genesis on the 39 by 14  square metres of the vault. Twenty-five years  later, by then over sixty years old, he created the renowned fresco of the Universal Judgement on the wall behind the altar – 200 square metres of surface.

The great artistic value of the rich and wonderful Renaissance Papal Buildings announces the importance of the Vatican Museums of which they are seat. Here, since the sixteenth century the richest collections in Europe have been exhibited. In 50.000 sqm divided in 11.000 rooms lighted up by 18.000 windows, corridors and terraces, there is the extraordinary collection of ancient Egyptian, Assyrian and Etrurian, pre-Roman, Roman and Greek, Early Christian, Medieval and Renaissance antiques and the exhibition of Modern Sacred Art. The story of mankind is narrated by the objects, in an 8 km exhibition route, but also by the manuscripts and volumes of the Apostolic Library. Since the finding of “Laocoön” of the first century, which was set at the beginning in the part of the Domus Aurea on the Esquiline Hill, on these Museums the greatest artists have left their mark with some of their most important works. Michelangelo’s “Sistine Chapel”, Pinturicchio’s “Madonna col Bambino”, Domenichino’s “Comunione di San Girolamo”, Caravaggio’s “Deposizione” (painting stolen by the French in 1797 and then given back to the Pope in 1815), Raffaello’s “Trasfigurazione” are some examples of the multitude of treasures kept in the Vatican Museums, a space relatively small in proportion to the magnificence of the artistic legacy accumulated by the Popes during their pontificates.
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