Reviews of Vatican Museums Walking Tour including Sistine Chapel, Raphael's Rooms and St Peter's

Skip the Line: Vatican Museums Walking Tour including Sistine Chapel, Raphael's Rooms and St Peter's

great tour, had to keep moving but understandable with the crowds, so glad we booked this and didnt have to wait inthe mile long line
Reviewed by: Patrick C, May 2011

Excellent Vatican tour. The tour guides' English was outstanding and his knowledge was superb. Was not happy with description of where to meet the tour. Your instructions should say the 'steps' go down. We looked for steps going up???????
Reviewed by: Robert M, May 2011

This was my second tour of the Vatican Museums and I must say it was so much better than the first one! Our guide was very knowledgeable and was able to keep everyone interested in what he was saying for the entire tour.
Reviewed by: dml104, May 2011

Fantastic! We had the best tour guide, Vincent, we have ever had on a tour. Not only was he brilliant with his knowledge, he spoke with such passion on the subject which meant to us he loves his work. The tour was great. When we met up with the tour, we didn't have to wait which was great especially after seeing all the lines of people trying to purchase ticket. Highly recommend the tour and try to get Vincent as your guide.
Reviewed by: Michael A, May 2011

excellent tour guide (Anna)- we kept moving but she always answered our questions with in-depth information. This tour was worth the cost.
Reviewed by: Fred K, May 2011




Vatican City - Brief Description

The Vatican City, one of the most sacred places in Christendom, attests to a great history and a formidable spiritual venture. A unique collection of artistic and architectural masterpieces lie within the boundaries of this small state. At its centre is St Peter's Basilica, with its double colonnade and a circular piazza in front and bordered by palaces and gardens. The basilica, erected over the tomb of St Peter the Apostle, is the largest religious building in the world, the fruit of the combined genius of Bramante, Raphael, Michelangelo, Bernini and Maderna.


Vatican City - Long Description

Skip the Line: Vatican Museums Walking Tour including Sistine Chapel, Raphael's Rooms and St Peter's

As the site of the tomb of Saint Peter and a pilgrimage centre, the Vatican is directly and materially linked with the history of Christianity. Furthermore, it is both an ideal and an exemplary creation of the Renaissance and of Baroque art. It exerted an underlying influence on the development of art from the 16th century.

The independent state defined by the Lateran Treaty of 11 February 1929 extends its territorial sovereignty over an integral area of less than 50ha: the Vatican City. However, this tiny enclave of Rome has, within the heritage of mankind, an importance which is inversely proportional to its derisory area. Centre of Christianity since Constantine (4th century), first the occasional, and then the permanent seat of papal power, the Vatican is at once an important archaeological site of the Roman world, the pre-eminently holy city of the Catholics and one of the major cultural reference points of both Christians and non-Christians.

Its prestigious past explains the development of an architectural and artistic ensemble, of exceptional value. The churches and palaces rest on a substratum impregnated with history. Beneath the basilica of Saint Peter, reconstructed in the 16th century under the guidance of the most brilliant architects of the Renaissance, remains of the first basilica founded by Constantine still exist, as well as fragments of the circus of Caligula and Nero, and an entire Roman necropolis of the 1st century AD, where Christian sepulchres are placed side-by-side with pagans. Saint Peter's was founded as a longitudinal basilica with five aisles, with a transept, apse, and large atrium with quadriporticus. The edifice was erected in 315 over a tomb of Saint Peter. The apse area was subjected to a lengthy renovation which, entrusted by Pope Nicholas V in 1452 to Bernardo Rossellino, over the course of the following two centuries led a total revamping of the basilica's structural appearance. Julius II inaugurated a massive artistic project for the refoundation of the entire basilica, along with the decoration of the Stanze Vaticane and the Sistine Chapel and the construction of his own tomb. In 1606, finally, Carlo Maderno built the monumental facade and in 1626 the church was consecrated. Lorenzo Bernini was entrusted in 1656 for the renovation of the area in front of the basilica. He built two enormous hemicycles with Doric porticoes linked to the church through a trapezoidal plaza that frames the facade between two inclined perspectival backdrops. It represents the Church's embrace of all Christianity.

The Vatican Palace, built on a residence of Pope Symmachus (498-514), renewed during the Carolingian period and in the 12th century, is the result of a long series of construction campaigns in which, from the Middle Ages successive popes rivalled each other in their munificence. The building of Nicholas III (1272-80) was enlarged principally by Nicholas V (1447-55), Sixtus IV (1471-84) preceding the major works of Innocent VIII, Julius II and Leo X (Belvedere and Belvedere Court, San Damaso Court and Loggia of Raphael).

The history of Renaissance art and of the Baroque period merges freely with the later additions to the palace, from Paul III (1534-49) to Alexander VII (1665-67). The works of the 18th century (the foundation of the Pio-Clementino Musem by Pius VI), of the 19th century (the Antiquities Museum of Pius VII and Gregory XVI) and of the 20th century (the new Picture Gallery) fit within the tradition of papal patronage.


Skip the Line: Vatican Museums Walking Tour including Sistine Chapel, Raphael's Rooms and St Peter's
Source: UNESCO/CLT/WHC
http://whc.unesco.org/