Photo gallery of the Vatican and Roman heritage

Bernini’s colonnade

Gian Lorenzo Bernini designed the square between 1656 and 1667, under Alexander VII. His elliptical colonnade has four rows of columns, and the intention is explicit: it figures two arms that welcome and embrace the faithful.

A detail almost every visitor misses. Two porphyry discs are set into the pavement on either side of the obelisk. Stand exactly on one of them and the four rows of columns visually align into a single line. The colonnade suddenly appears to have only one thickness. It is a calculated optical effect, and it still works.

The Egyptian obelisk

The central obelisk itself comes from Egypt. It was raised on the site in 1586 under Sixtus V, a considerable engineering operation for its time.

Michelangelo’s dome

The present basilica replaces a first Constantinian church of the fourth century. Construction began in 1506 and stretched over more than a century, successively involving Bramante, Raphael, Michelangelo, Maderno, and Bernini.

The dome belongs to Michelangelo, who designed it without seeing it finished. It rises to about 136 metres, making it one of the tallest structures in Rome. From the square, Maderno’s later façade partly masks the base of the dome, which explains a frequent disappointment among visitors who find it less spectacular up close than in photographs taken from farther away.

The Pietà

Inside, Michelangelo’s Pietà, carved when he was not yet twenty-five, has been protected behind glass since an attack in 1972.

Gallery of Maps

The Gallery of Maps stretches about 120 metres. It was decorated between 1580 and 1585 from the surveys of the geographer Ignazio Danti, and presents forty cartographic frescoes of regional Italy.

The gilded ceiling above it is often photographed more than the maps themselves, which is a mistake. The maps are a remarkable scientific document for their time.

Giuseppe Momo’s spiral staircase

The double-helix staircase designed by Giuseppe Momo in 1932 stands at the museum exit. Its form lets visitors going up and those going down never meet. It has become one of the most reproduced images of the Vatican, often without anyone realizing it dates from the twentieth century rather than the Renaissance.

Why photography is forbidden

The Sistine Chapel is not photographed. Photography is forbidden there, and the ban is enforced.

It is not an arbitrary constraint. It protects the frescoes, and it also reflects reproduction rights granted during the restoration campaigns carried out between 1980 and 1994.

Michelangelo’s ceiling and Last Judgment

Michelangelo painted the ceiling between 1508 and 1512, then the Last Judgment on the altar wall between 1536 and 1541. Contrary to a stubborn legend, he did not work lying on his back but standing, head tilted back, on scaffolding of his own design.

How to read the Genesis cycle

A practical tip worth more than a photograph. Look at the ceiling starting from the altar wall and stepping back toward the entrance. The scenes then read in the chronological order of the Genesis narrative, and you notice that Michelangelo’s style changes as the project advances, the figures growing fuller and more powerful as he proceeds.

Frescoed ceiling of the Camera dei Papiri

The Salone Sistino, built under Sixtus V by the architect Domenico Fontana, is among the halls the museum route lets you walk through. Its walls and vaults are entirely painted.

Access for researchers

The Vatican Apostolic Library itself is not open for free visiting; its reading rooms are reserved for accredited researchers. Its history, holdings, and the digitization project underway since 2010 are covered in the heritage of the Vatican Apostolic Library.