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Vatican: Vatican Museum
built 635 days ago
The Vatican Museum is the largest museum complex in the world with over 1400 rooms. The Vatican Museum includes the museum, galleries with 3,000 years of art, the Sistine Chapel, and parts of the papal palace. There is an astonishing amount of art, including a room of works by Raphael. The Pinacoteca Vaticana is probably Rome's best picture gallery with many Renaissance works. One of the most impressive halls is the Hall of Maps, with murals of old maps of the papal lands.
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With a little more than 100 acres (less than half a square kilometer) within its walls, the Vatican is easily traveled by foot; ... most of this area is inaccessible to tourists. The most popular areas open to tourists are the Basilica of St. Peter and the Vatican Museums.
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Other Vatican sites include the Apostolic Palace, beautiful gardens, the Piazza St. Pietro (St. Peter's Square) and the Vatican museum (http://mv.vatican.va/3_EN/pages/MV_Home.html). To many, the highlight of the museum is the Sistine Chapel whose ceiling (painted by Michelangelo) has undergone a controversial restoration which revealed colors much brighter than seen previously. But the museums offer much more: The Etruscan and Roman collections are among the finest and most extensive in the world; the Raphael Stanzas are a series of spectacular frescoed rooms; the Gallery of Tapestries and Maps details the Earth as it was thought to be in the 16th century; and the Museum of Modern Religious Art highlights the 20th century.
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Once you’ve purchased your tickets for admission to the Vatican Museums, you can choose to follow one of four color-coded itineraries that range from 1 ½ hours to more than 5 hours. All itineraries end in the Sistine Chapel. Even with a five-hour tour, it’s impossible to see everything there is to admire, but you’ll get a good overview and hit the most well-known highlights of these magnificent museums.
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The Vatican has a unique, noncommercial economy that is supported financially by contributions (known as Peter's Pence) from Roman Catholics throughout the world. It ... sells postage stamps, tourist mementos, and publications. Fees for admission to museums also go into church coffers.
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As the Appartamento Borgia consisted of six rooms, and only the first four were employed for the museum, the remaining two were turned over to the Vatican Library, to which they are adjacent. In the winter of 1838-39 the museum was limited to the first two rooms, and the two which were then vacated were likewise transferred to the library. Finally, Pius IX added ... the last two halls to the library, distributing the marble works between the Vatican and the Lateran museums. Having acquired the renowned library of Cardinal Angelo Mai on 8 September, 1854, the pope had this housed in the first two rooms of the Appartamento, closing them to the public. The artistic creations of Pinturicchio which adorn the walls were, however, restored to the admiration of the public when Leo XIII opened the Borgia suite, establishing there the consulting library of printed books by Decree of 20 April, 1889. The ceilings and lunettes, which preserve the paintings of the great Umbrian artist, had suffered little despite the vicissitudes of the Sale Borgia, but the walls and the floor had received serious damage.
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Vatican Museum