The Vatican City’s treasures

The Vatican City is the smallest internationally recognized independent state in the world. Yet in terms of art pieces per square meter, it might be the state with the highest concentration of art in the planet. 

 

Over time the popes have called on many artists and architects to contribute to the buildings of the Vatican. 

Every year thousands of people come from all over the world to visit this priceless historical and artistic complex: the buildings count a total of one thousand rooms, some of them set aside as living quarters, but another large segment reserved for the museums and the Vatican Library, which houses a collection of ancient manuscripts and more than one million bound volumes. 

 

This explains the unique economy of Vatican City, which is supported exclusively by museum admission fees and the sale of postage stamps and publications. 

But let’s take a closer look at the masterpieces collected by the popes through the centuries to identify the not to be missed works in this vast collection.  

 

First, there is St. Peter’s Basilica, a renowned work of Renaissance architecture, whose successive architects include Bramante, Michelangelo, Giacomo della Porta, Maderno and Bernini.

 

The Sistine chapel, famous for its frescoes, includes works by Perugino, Domenico Ghirlandaio and Botticelli, as well as the ceilings and the Last Judgment by Michelangelo. The story goes that many of Michelangelo’s contemporaries were offended by the almost 400 nude figures represented in the Last Judgment, particularly by the naked saints. The stern theologians at the Council of Trent denounced the fresco and commissioned painter Daniele da Volterra to paint vestments and fig leaves over some of the naked figures in 1565, a year after Michelangelo died. Today the frescoes may be seen in their original state, as these alterations were reversed during the chapel’s restoration. 

 

Also particularly famous are the Rooms of Raphael. These were actually the apartments of Pope Julius II, who did not want to live in the rooms inhabited by his predecessor Alexander VI and frescoed by Pinturicchio, and, therefore, moved to the floor above into a wing built by Nicholas V in the 15th century. More famous artists such as Raphael’s master, Perugino, had already worked on the rooms, but Pope Julius II gave Raphael complete license and he erased all previous work. 

 

Imagine that while Raphael was working in these rooms, Michelangelo was in the Sistine Chapel creating the Final Judgment.  What a rich time to be at the Vatican!

 

Other not-to-be missed works of art are the Borgia apartments, and the Pinacoteca with its many paintings and sculptures from artists such as Giotto, Perugino, Raphael, Beato Angelico, Leonardo da Vinci, Correggio, and Caravaggio. 

 

The final suggestion on our must see list is a less well-known and less easily visited site: the Vatican Necropolis. It was first discovered in 1940 during the pontificate of Pius XII, who wanted to be buried as close as possible to St. Peters grave.  For centuries the assumption was that St. Peter’s grave was beneath the Basilica.  An excavation of the site was undertaken in order to find it.  But instead of St. Peters tomb, they discovered a Necropolis at a depth varying between 5 and 12 meters.

 

After the discovery the Vatican sponsored archeological excavations that went on until 1949 and which revealed parts of a necropolis dating to Imperial times. The necropolis was not originally one of the underground Catacombs of Rome, but an open-air cemetery with tombs and mausoleums.

 

Today it is possible to visit this fabulous site only if arranged in advance by specifying the desired date and indicating the language in which the tour is to be conducted. The tour lasts about an hour and a half, and it’s definitely something worth including in a great visit to the Vatican.