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The Vatican Museums are a collection of museums in Vatican City, with the Pio-Clementine, Chiaramonti, Gregorian Egyptian and Gregorian Etruscan museums alongside the Pinacoteca Vaticana. The Gallery of Tapestries belongs to the ensemble too: think of a walk through galleries with plenty to catch your eye, where a guide can help you choose what to focus on.
Painted by Raphael, the Raphael Rooms comprise the Stanza della Segnatura, Stanza di Eliodoro, Stanza dell'Incendio di Borgo and Sala di Costantino. Their scenes include The Parnassus, The Mass at Bolsena and The Expulsion of Heliodorus from the Temple.
The School of Athens, Raphael's fresco in the Apostolic Palace, invites a closer look at its figures. Plato, Aristotle, Pythagoras, Socrates, Heraclitus and Diogenes of Sinope are among those represented. Picking out a familiar name is a rewarding way into the painting.
The Sistine Chapel is part of the Apostolic Palace. Sixtus IV commissioned it and gave it its name; Baccio Pontelli was its architect. Michelangelo painted the ceiling in fresco, including The Creation of Adam, The Creation of Eve, The Fall and Expulsion from Paradise and The Deluge, alongside prophets and sibyls. His fresco The Last Judgment is also in the chapel.
Laocoön and His Sons, by Agesander, Athanadoros and Polydoros, is a marble sculpture in the Pio-Clementine Museum. The same museum holds the marble Belvedere Torso by Apollonius of Athens. Apollo Belvedere, a marble statue of Apollo, also belongs to the Vatican Museums. Let sculpture be a focus of its own as you consider what you would like to see.
Compare a guided visit to the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel in Rome with a semi-private guided tour or a private guided visit. There are also Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel guided tours and another guided option covering the museums and chapel. For a wider Rome itinerary, consider a full-day guided tour with the Colosseum and Vatican Museums or a Rome guided tour with the Colosseum, Vatican and Sistine Chapel.
Every trip that starts or stops here is also listed on the destination page.
Michelangelo painted it in fresco.
Rooms in the Vatican Museums commissioned by Julius II and painted by Raphael.
Sixtus IV, from whom it takes its name.
Laocoön and His Sons, the Belvedere Torso and Apollo Belvedere.
Yes, it is part of the Vatican Museums.
Sources: Wikidata (CC0).
