Paris1972-Versailles2003

I arrived in Rome with the family, finally. After several business trips and telling them of the opportunities to see here , they wanted to come. Therefore, I obliged and took them all here by airplane Nantes, Roissy CDG, and  Rome’s Fiumicino. It was a very nice family trip and we packed a lot of sights into it. I have written plenty on the sights of this trip in my blog but as usual this road warrior guy forgets things and have pictures and sights not yet documented in my blog, Therefore, let me tell you about the Vatican Museums !!! Hope you enjoy it as I.

The Vatican Museums are a museum complex located in the Vatican. It brings together twelve museums, which represents five galleries and one thousand four hundred rooms. The complex houses one of the largest art collections in the world, as it displays the vast collection of artworks, including paintings and sculptures, collected over the centuries by Popes, especially in the era of the Papal States (until 1870), and subsequently the very institution of the Vatican Museums. The museums are partly housed in the Vatican Palace. The birth of the museums is linked to the desire of Pope Julius II to have ancient statues, such as the Belvedere Apollo and the Laocoon, moved to the Belvedere gardens at the beginning of the 16C. The statues enriched Bramante’s project for the Cortile del Belvedere, a vast complex of buildings to connect the Vatican to the Belvedere Villa. Bramante also designed a garden inspired by ancient palaces. With the statues, the garden soon attracted artists interested in studying Roman antiquity. Later, other sculptures, including the Venus Felix and the Torso, were added. When the Vatican became the Vatican City State in 1929, a new entrance to the museums had to be provided. It will be on Viale Vaticano through the walls and via the helical staircase or the Bramante staircase. Finally, in February 2000, Pope John Paul II inaugurated the new entrance, better adapted and also equipped with a helical ramp.

This is huge, you really need two days to see it all,and we were pressed on time so will just tell you briefly on them as such,You need to have lots of patience….

The Vatican Picture Gallery, completed in 1931 and inaugurated on October 27, 1932, was carried out at the request of Pope Pius XI to organize a collection of paintings that had belonged to several of his predecessors, starting with Pius VI. ; Pope Paul VI  inaugurated in 1973, the collection houses nearly 600 pictorial works, sculptures and drawings. It follows an itinerary which extends through around fifty rooms and which gives visitors an overall vision of modern art, through a vast selection of 250 artists from the end of the 19C to the present day. Among the works the most important of this museum, started by Pope Clement XIV and continued by Pius VI (hence the name Pio-Clementino) to preserve the collections that the Vatican acquired to keep them in Italy,

The Missionary Ethnological Museum was established by Pius XI at the Lateran Palace in 1926, it was transferred to the Vatican at the request of John XXIII. It contains objects relating to non-European cultures coming from the Missionary Exhibition of 1925, the Borgia Museum, and donations offered by different missionary congregations,

The Egyptian Gregorian Museum was founded by Pope Gregory XVI in 1839, designed by Father Ungarelli, one of the first Italian Egyptologists, it contains Egyptian pieces collected by popes since the end of the 18C, and statues brought to Rome in the epoch of the Empire.

The Gregorian Etruscan Museum, founded by Pope Gregory XVI in 1837, brings together pieces mostly from private excavations carried out, with the authorization of the Papal Government, inside the necropolises in southern Etruria. The museum also houses a collection of Roman antiquities from Rome and Lazio region as well as a large collection of Greek Italic-style vases and Etruscan vases,

The Secular Gregorian Museum houses the collection of antiquities from the ancient Lateran Museum. This collection was assembled by Gregory XVI at the Lateran Palace and inaugurated on May 14, 1844. Pope John XXIII had it transferred to the Vatican. Most of the objects come from excavations and discoveries made in the Papal States.

The Christian Museum, or Pio Cristiano Museum, founded by Pius XI, Vatican Apostolic Library Museum Dating back to the early days of the papacy, the Vatican Library gave birth throughout history to the Pontifical Archives, which contains the Secret Archives of the Vatican. Many popes have devoted resources and sustained interest to it, including Nicholas V, who formally founded the institution around 1450, then Sixtus IV, Sixtus V, Paul V, up to Leo XIII and Pius XI who, before his pontificate, is the prefect.

The Carriage Museum was established by Pope Paul VI, and housed in a large room in the basement of the square garden. There are preserved carriages, saddles, automobiles, and sedan chairs used by the different popes.

The Chiaramonti Museum founded Pope Pius VII Chiaramonti to house Roman statues and busts, it was ordered by the neoclassical sculptor Antonio Canova in 1807. It contains around a thousand sculptures, including portraits of emperors , representations of deities, numerous frieze fragments and reliefs taken from the sarcophagi.

The Philatelic and Numismatic Museum was inaugurated on September 25, 2007, the museum is the latest collection of the Vatican Museums. It brings together all the stamps and coins of Vatican City, from 1929 to date and also houses an extensive philatelic collection from the former Papal States, with some rarities.

The Rome tourist office on the Vatican museums :https://www.turismoroma.it/en/places/vatican-museums-and-sistine-chapel

The official Vatican museums : https://m.museivaticani.va/content/museivaticani-mobile/en/musei-del-papa/storia.html

There you go folks as said a wonderful park in a huge historically renown city of Rome. The combination of museums is huge and beautiful as said ,you need two days to see it all and need to get in long lines, however, is a must to visit me think, Again, hope you enjoy this post on the Vatican Museums !!! as I.

And , remember for happy travels, good health, and many cheers to all !!!