Vatican Museums Rome
One of the largest and richest Museums in the world, the Vatican actually houses a number of museums and galleries. The crowning jewel of the complex is the famed Sistine Chapel, but there are plenty of other spectacular items to awe you far before you ever see Michelangelo's most famous canvas.

The Egyptian Museum holds mummies, a replica of an underground chamber tomb and relics from ancient Mesopotamia and Biblical Nineveh. About 800 works of statuary and 5000 inscriptions can be found in the Chiaramonti Museum. The Gregorian Museum of Etruscan Art was founded by Gregory XIV in 1837 to house the works coming from the excavations carried out in southern Etruria. It was later enriched with further acquisitions and donations, and became one of the most important collections of Etruscan art in the world. The Biga room is named after the Biga, the two-horse chariot located in the middle of the display area. The Roman Biga dates to the first century B.C. The individual Galleries of the Candelabra, Tapestries and Maps are self-explanatory. The Apartment of St. Pius V is adorned with 16th century tapestries, and his personal chapel decorated with Frescoes by Vasari and Zucchi.

Of particular interest are the Raphael Rooms and the Collection of Modern Religious Art. The series of four communicating rooms was a reconstruction carried out by Nicholas V (1447-55) of the thirteenth century palace of Nicholas III (1277-80). Towards the end of the first decade of the sixteenth century Perugino, Sodoma, Baldassarre Peruzzi and Bramantino were all at work decorating them, but in 1509 Julius II dismissed them and commissioned Raphael to decorate the whole of this part of the Vatican. He worked there for about ten years, but only three of the rooms were completed before his death in 1520, and the direct intervention of the master is certain in only two of them. The Collection of Modern Religious Art includes hundreds of paintings, sculptures, engravings and designs donated to the Holy See by private individuals and, in some cases, by the artists themselves. Housed in 55 different rooms, the collection includes works of Rodin, Chagall, Gauguin, Henry Moore, Klee, Kandinsky, Picasso, Velasquez, and scores of others. This is easily the most impressive collection of religious art in the world.

These are just a few of the dozens of individual museums, galleries, and private residences which house the richest collection of artwork, antiquities and relics in the world. Most visitors find themselves nearly numbed by the seemingly endless display of wealth and creative genius. Many of the rooms would stand alone as individual museums but the group, taken in their entirety, must be seen to be believed.

Website www.vatican.va/museums/