A visit to the Vatican Museums during Rome visit

If you have booked flights to Rome and visiting the city to spend your next vacations, do remember to visit the Vatican Museums. It’s a must-see place, which visitors shouldn’t miss out in any case. The Vatican Museums, also called Musei Vaticani, are a group of museums situated within the boundaries of Vatican City.

The Vatican Museums owe their existence to the benevolence of Pope Clement XIV and Pope Pius VI. These two 18th-century popes were the first to invite the people into the precincts of The Vatican for viewing the art collections. The Pio-Clementine Museum, which got its name after these pontiffs, was the first building to be opened in the vast complex.

With the passing of decades, the varied collections of art continued to grow phenomenally with several popes making additions and bringing more museums to the fore. Presently, a total of 13 museums are housed in the two Vatican palaces. These museums are home to the huge collection of famous classical sculptures and the highly significant masterpieces of Renaissance art that the Roman Catholic Church painstakingly built over several centuries.

The Sistine Chapel is the prominent among them all. It’s simply amazing to visit. Renowned painter Michelangelo has elaborately decorated its ceiling. Another famous painter Raphael decorated the Stanze della Segnatura on the visitor route across the Vatican Museums. It is the most frequented place in the Vatican with around 5 million people visiting it in 2011. The Sistine Chapel has a total of 54 galleries, which are greatly admired by the visitors here.