Page 234 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Rome

232  ROME AREA B Y AREA

2 Vatican Museums

The buildings that house one of the world’s finest
art collections were once papal palaces built for
Renaissance popes such as Sixtus IV, Innocent VIII,
and Julius II. The long courtyards and galleries,
linking Innocent VIII’s Belvedere Palace to the
other buildings, are by Donato Bramante and were
commissioned for Julius II in 1503. Most of the later
additions to the buildings were made in the 18th
century, when priceless works of art were first put
on show. This complex of museums also houses the
Sistine Chapel and the Raphael Rooms, and should not be
missed. Note that no bare knees or shoulders are allowed.

KEY
1 Cortile di San Damaso
2 Raphael Loggia
3 Borgia Apartment
4 Borgia Tower
5 Sistine Chapel
6 Apartment of Pius V
7 Cortile del Belvedere
8 Cortile della Biblioteca . Atrium of the Four Gates
Built by Camporese in 1792–3,
9 Braccio Nuovo this vast domed edifice was
0 The Belvedere Palace was the original entrance to
commissioned in the late 15th the Vatican Museums.
century by Pope Innocent VIII.
q The Spiral Ramp, a spectacular
stairway leading down from the
museums to the street, was designed
by Giuseppe Momo in 1932.

Simonetti Stairway
Built in the 1780s with a vaulted ceiling, the stairs were part of the
conversion of the Belvedere Palace into the Pio-Clementine Museum.

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