[2025 Vatican Attraction] Travel Guide for Vatican Museums (Updated Mar)

The museum is one of the earliest museums in the world. It consists of 12 exhibition halls and 5 art galleries. It brings together ancient relics from Egypt, Greece, Rome and the artistic essence of the Renaissance. It is a collection of priceless treasures. museum. Collections in the museum Although the museum occupies a small area, its collection of masterpieces is numerous. For example, the dome painting "Genesis" created by Michelangelo is collected here, which is very worth seeing. At the same time, for friends who love archaeology, some ancient Greek and Roman cultural relics collected in the museum are also worth studying. Of course, in addition to the collections inside, the architectural style of the museum itself is also commendable. The ancient exterior wall like a city wall, the spiral ramp at the exit, and the sculpture "Broken Earth" in the Pinecone Courtyard are all worth savoring. Visiting Guide Pinecone Courtyard Entering the museum, the first thing to visit is the Pinecone Courtyard, which retains the style of the 16th century European viewing courtyard. The famous sculpture "Broken Earth" is the sculptor Arnaldo ? Pomodoro's work. At the northern end of the courtyard, there is a giant bronze pine cone tree about 4 meters high. There are two bronze peacocks on both sides of the tree. This is a replica of the second century AD, and the original is kept in the museum. On one side of the courtyard is an illustration of the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel, which you can take a look at before visiting. After entering from the iron gate on the right side of the courtyard, there is the Greco-Roman Sculpture Gallery, including the Museo Chiaramonti, the Room of Busts of the Museo Pio-Clementino, and the New Wing Showroom. (BraccioNuovo). The Nile is the larger statue in the Au Clemence Museum. This group of Nile gods is a monumental sculpture, revealing the fact that Greek art was heavily influenced by Egyptian art. The Pio Clementino Museum then goes to the Cortile Ottagono of the Museo Pio Clementino, which is the famous statue exhibition area, two of the three treasures of the museum in the museum The statue works are here, "Laocón" and "Apollo". Other statues such as the ancient Greek statue "Helmeth" and "Perseus" with Medusa's head in the left hand are also of great appreciation value. After passing through the octagonal courtyard, there is the animal hall. In fact, it is almost an aisle. The area is not very large, but there are many things. Many of the exhibits are dramatic and bloody scenes that can be taken with a single stroke. One of the exhibition halls of the Pio Clementino Museum is the Greek Cross Room. The important collection here is the mosaic "Minerva" on the floor. Her Greek name is "Athena". The famous wisdom and Goddess of Just War. The other exhibition hall is circular, so it is also called the circular exhibition hall, transliterated as the "Rotonda" exhibition hall. The large plate in the center of the exhibition hall is very conspicuous, and it is recorded that it is the bathtub of the Roman emperor Nero. Continuing to visit, we came to the Museum of Muse. The statue of the Muse here is peaceful and elegant, which is simply a model of ancient Roman beauty. But they can only stand aside, because there is another treasure of the town hall - "Remnant Body". The life of the Greek statue is full of all parts of the body, even if only the broken arm is left, it can still give people vitality and beauty. The statue is placed in the center of the pavilion, and the ceiling at the top is also worth noting. Then we went to the Egyptian Museum, the full name of which is the Gregorian Egyptian Museum (MuseoGregorianoEgizio). A stone at the entrance is nearly 5,000 years old, more than 2,700 BC. There are also many mummies in the exhibition hall. Although there are also in the British Museum, they are closed there. The coffin lids of the mummies in the museum are open, and you can directly see the mummies lying in the coffins. From the Egyptian Pavilion, go up the stairs to the Etruscan Museum (MuseoGregorianoEtrusco), an exhibition hall named after the collectors of artifacts collected from the large burial site of Cervederi, the archaeological site of the Etruscan civilization come. After visiting the Etruscan Museum, you will come to the second floor. The 200-meter-long corridor is divided into three exhibition areas, the Galleria dei Candelabri Caridclabras, the tapestry showroom and the Caridclabras showroom. (Galleria delle Carte Geograticlle). There are papal coats of arms everywhere on the ceiling, and Candelabri's showroom is famous for the statue "Diana". The walls of the tapestry showroom are adorned with 19 ornate tapestries embroidered with stories from the life of Jesus, each about four to five hundred years old. Since there was no machine knitting in the early days, these were all knitted manually according to the sketch. Raphael Exhibition Room From the corridor on the second floor, you can directly enter the gorgeous Raphael's Room (Raphael's Room), which used to be the residence of Pope Julius II. Raphael is magnificent and beautiful. Decorated with frescoes, it consists of four consecutive rooms, of which the fresco work "School of Athens" in the signature room is considered one of Raphael's great masterpieces. In addition, the frescoes "The Fire of Polgo" in the Room of Constantine, Room of Herodoras and the Corridor of Raphael are also worth seeing. The exhibition room for modern religious art collections comes out of Raphael's exhibition room. On the way to the Sistine Chapel, you will pass an exhibition room for modern religious art collections. There are also many exhibits. Of course, the content is inseparable from Catholicism, but the artistic style is very modern. If you are interested, you can visit and take some pictures. Sistine Chapel Then comes the climax of the visit to the entire museum - the Sistine Chapel. Inside, the vaulted ceiling houses Michelangelo's extraordinary masterpiece, The Creation. If you have enough time in the painting gallery, you can go to the painting gallery on the right side of the atrium at the entrance of the museum after visiting the church. Here in chronological order, works from the Byzantine era to modern times, mainly religious paintings, are displayed. The fourth room is the work "The Angel Playing Music" by Melozio da Fleury. The eighth exhibition room has Raphael's masterpieces "The Coronation of Mary", "Mary of Frilian", "The Transfiguration of Christ", etc. Don't miss it. In addition, there are 10 sketches by Raphael, tapestries woven by Brussel. The ninth exhibition room has Leonardo da Vinci's unfinished "San Girolamo" and the Baroque art master Bernini's "Christ Descends". What is worth mentioning about the spiral ramp is that after reading the boutiques of many exhibition halls, there is another place that is worth visiting. That is the spiral ramp at the exit of the museum. It was designed and built by Momo and is unique in the world. One, adorned with the emblems of the Popes. In fact, this spiral ramp is composed of two circular ramps. Because of the visual illusion, it looks like there is only one ramp, which is very interesting and is estimated to be open in rotation. Shot down from the top of the stairs, photos of this angle have appeared in various media.