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Nicole's
Travelogues and Budget Travel Tips..
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VATICAN MUSEUMS , ITALY
The Vatican Museums (Musei Vaticani) are the public art and sculpture museums in the Vatican City, which display works from the extensive collection of the Roman Catholic Church. The museums were founded in the 16th century by Pope Julius II. There are 54 galleries, or "salas" in total, with the Sistine Chapel, notably, being the very last sala within the Museum - visitors need to traverse the other 53 salas before earning their weary reward with access to the Sistine. To get to the Vatican museums, exit St Peters Square to the right of the Basilica and follow the walls around to the back of the Vatican. The museums are open Monday through Friday:
The Gallery of the Candelabra was the first room that we walked through. The gallery was named after the candelabras which were placed in front of the pillars when the room was opened by Pius VI, in 1761. This room contains classical roman sculpture which dates from the 3rd century B.C. to the 3rd century A.D.
The Court of the Pigna constitutes the northern end of the great renaissance Belvedere Courtyard. The present courtyard which takes its name form the enormous bronze pine cone set into the "nicchone", is bounded on the south side by the Braccio Nuovo, on the east by the Chiaromonti Gallery, on the north by Innocent VIII's Palazzetto and on the west by the galleries of the Apostolic Library. The colossal bronze pine cone was cast in the 1st or 2nd century by Publius Cincius Salvius who left his name on the base.
Today, the library holds some 75,000 manuscripts and over 1.1 million printed books, which include some 8,500 incunabula. The Secret Vatican Archives were separated from the library at the beginning of the 17th century; they contain another 150,000 items. |
We were told to get there as early as possible to get in line. But we were lazy, slept in, and got there at 9am. The line was already about a mile long. After 2 hours in line, we finally made it in. 
The Chiaramonti Museum, named after its founder, Pius VII, has changed only slightly in appearance since it was first laid out by Antonio Canova.
Nearly a thousand pieces of ancient sculpture of every kind are exhibited: statues of gods, portrait statues, pagan altars, architectural ornaments, urns and sarcophagi.
The Vatican Library (Latin: Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana) is the library of the Holy See, located in Vatican City. It is one of the oldest and most significant libraries of historical texts. Pope Nicholas V established the library in 1448 by combining some 350 Greek, Latin and Hebrew codices inherited from his predecessors with his own collection and extensive acquisitions, among them manuscripts from the imperial library of Constantinople.