The Vatican Museums are one of the most interesting attractions in Rome. They share with the Capitoline Museum the reputation of the oldest museum in Italy. The Vatican Museums holds a 5-century history of existence, and is the richest treasury of works of fine art.

The history of the Vatican Museums goes back to the beginning of the 16th century when Pope Julius II decided to place the famous statue of “Laocoon and His Sons” in the Vatican. This was only the beginning of a long line of similar ventures that eventually led to the formation of one of the most famous and visited museums in the world. Pope Clement XVI, Pope Pius VI and Pope Gregory XVI as well as other popes continued to form the collection. Each new pope added to the collection, a puritan pope who was far from adding to the collection was a rare phenomenon, such as the stern Adrian VI. He was so shocked by the pagan spirit of Renaissance art that he threatened to whitewash the Sistine Chapel and throw the “Laocoon” into the Tiber.

The sculpture “Laocoon and His Sons” is stunning in its plasticity and realism. It depicts the mortal struggle of Laocoon and his sons with the serpent. Laocoon became famous for trying to warn his fellow Trojans against Odysseus’ wooden horse. For this he brought upon himself the displeasure of Athena, and Apollo sent a deadly serpent, which killed both Laocoon and his two sons. It is a marble copy of the work of Agesander of Rhodes and his sons Polydorus and Athenodorus in the second half of the first century BC from a bronze original. The original was made in bronze in 200 BC in Pergamon and did not survive. A Roman copy was found on January 14, 1506, by Felice de Fredis in the vineyards of Esquilin, underground at the site of the Golden House of Nero. Pope Julius II immediately sent the architect Giuliano da Sangallo and the sculptor Michelangelo Buonarroti after learning of the find. Sangallo confirmed the validity of the work with the words, “It is the Laocoon mentioned by Pliny.” Already in March 1506 the sculptural group was handed over to the pope, who installed it in the Vatican’s Belvedere.

The Vatican museums are huge. The Vatican’s 1,400 halls and 20 courtyard museums hold more than 60,000 works of art. Among them are the works of ancient masters, works by Giovanni Bellini, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Botticelli, and sculptures by Bernini. There is something there – the huge statues of pharaohs and painted jugs of ancient Etruscans, the mysterious mummies and beautiful frescoes of Michelangelo, the House of Raphael and the beautiful Greek and Roman statues.

Immediately at the entrance a huge human river picks you up and slowly carries you through all the halls. Because there are many halls, and passages are quite confusing, if you do not follow – after 5 minutes you lose your orientation in space.

Vatican Museums are located in the historic rooms of the Belvedere, Papal Palace and Lateran Palace, the Vatican Library and the Sistine Chapel. Among the exhibits on display, the most famous are the Pinacoteca Vaticana, the Museum of Pius-Climent and Chiaramonti, Raphael’s Stans, and the Borgia Apartments.

The Borgia Apartments (all 5 halls) are covered with frescoes by the Pinturicchio of Umbria and his students. The splendor of the ceiling and walls in the paintings is unparalleled.

Speaking of the picture gallery (Pinacoteca Vaticana), its collection includes paintings from the 11th to the 19th century. Here you can admire works by Raphael, Perugino, Leonardo da Vinci, Giotto, Caravaggio and Filippo Lippi.

The Vatican Museums are more than just exhibits and walls. Note the stunning paintings on the ceilings. In the Round Room (Rotonda) there is a dome, like in the Pantheon, and in the Gallery of Geographical Maps there is a magnificent ceiling with many paintings in golden frames and, of course, ancient maps. It is curious how the old cartographers drew the world: all the mountains and forests seem to be convex, and the seas are so blue that they seem infinitely deep. Here one can see geographical maps of the Vatican dominions in Europe and some other important regions in the era of Pope Gregory XIII.

In Raphael’s famous Stans, in the first room, be sure to raise your head and look at the ceiling – true 3D: a completely flat surface depicts the halls and corridors as if instead of a ceiling, there really is a huge space!

Raphael’s stanzas are the four small rooms in the Vatican papal palace that Pope Julius II chose for his apartments. On Bramante’s advice he commissioned the young Raphael, then just 25, to paint the walls.

Stanza Constantina. Here official ceremonies were held. The frescoes adorning it, created by Raphael’s pupils after his death, are dedicated to the Roman emperor Constantine, who made Christianity an official religion in the third century AD. Stanza Eliodorus. This room was used for private receptions of the pope. The theme of the murals is the patronage of God for the Catholic Church. Stanza Seniatura. This room was the office of the pope. The theme of its paintings is the spiritual development of man. Stanza Pozhara in Borgo. Here the supreme court of the Holy See met. The central fresco, The Borgo Fire, tells the story of a fire in 847 in the Borgo district adjacent to the Papal Palace. At the back of the fresco is St. Peter’s Cathedral with its old facade.

Sistine Chapel. Since the 15th century, this is where conclaves – meetings of cardinals convened after the death of the pontiff to elect a new pope – have been held. Its walls are surrounded by two cycles: the history of Moses and the history of Christ. The altarpiece wall and ceiling were painted by Michelangelo. It took Michelangelo five years to paint one ceiling. There is a legend that all this time he was working lying down, it is not true – he had to write standing up, but with his head thrown back.