The Sistine Chapel

The Sistine Chapel is one of the must-sees of a visit to the Vatican and an essential stop for visitors.

It forms part of the Vatican Museums; you reach it during the Museums visit: Vatican Museums

Getting there: Ottaviano – San Pietro metro station, or by bus on lines 23, 34, 60, 62, etc.

Address: Viale Vaticano, 100

Opening hours: Monday to Saturday from 9:00 to 18:00 (ticket office closes at 16:00). On 24 and 31 December, from 8:00 to 14:00 (ticket office closes at 13:00). Closed on Sundays except the last Sunday of the month, when it opens from 9:00 to 14:00 with free entry. Closed on 1 and 6 January, 11 February, 19 March, Easter Sunday and Monday, 1 May, 29 June, 14 August, 15 August, 1 November, 8 December, 25 and 26 December.

Vatican Museums ticket prices (including the Sistine Chapel): €17 full price, free for under-6s, reduced to €8 for visitors aged 6 to 18. Audioguide €7. You can buy tickets directly on the official website that allow you to skip the queue for a €4 supplement. We strongly recommend buying online to avoid queues that can be very long.

Official website : http://www.museivaticani.va/content/museivaticani/en.html

Its name comes from Pope Sixtus IV, who had it fitted out, but the frescoes were painted over more than 50 years by several artists. This chapel, used for the popes' private masses, is also where the conclaves charged with electing the popes meet.

The hall is a little over 40 metres long and 13 metres wide, and rises to 20 metres.

The decoration of the Sistine Chapel breaks down as follows:

The floor : it is paved with marble inlays forming motifs reminiscent of the Cosmatesque pavements of the 14th century.

The frescoes on the side walls: they were painted by the workshops of Perugino, Botticelli, Rosselli and Ghirlandaio. The frescoes on the south side illustrate the life of Moses and those on the north side that of Christ, across a series of panels. These frescoes are incomplete today, the panels that began the stories of Moses and Christ having been covered to make way for the Last Judgement. Thus the birth and discovery of Moses and the Nativity of Christ are missing. Beneath these fresco cycles are painted hangings, and above them the portraits of the popes, successors of Christ. The frescoes above the gallery of popes represent the ancestors of Christ.

The ceiling : originally a simple starry sky, it now holds one of Michelangelo's masterpieces. The initial plan provided for the representation of the 12 apostles, but Michelangelo suggested to Pope Julius II a more ambitious work. He thus painted nine panels in the centre of the vault on the theme of the Creation, Adam and Eve, and Moses.

Each theme is composed of 3 panels. Some of these frescoes are extremely famous and often reproduced, such as the Creation of Adam and Adam and Eve driven from Paradise.

Around these central panels (on the lower panels) are figured the ancestors of Christ, episodes from the Old Testament, as well as Sibyls and Prophets.

The Last Judgement fresco: on the wall behind the altar, this is Michelangelo's other masterpiece. Painted between 1536 and 1541, this very large fresco depicts the Last Judgement. At the centre, Christ haloed in light is surrounded by the Virgin and many saints (St Peter with the keys, St Lawrence with his gridiron …) who look frightened, astonished or curious as they await the Last Judgement. Above, angels bear the instruments of the Passion (the cross, the crown of thorns, the column of the flagellation…)

Beneath Christ, the angels of the Apocalypse sound their trumpets to awaken the dead.

On the right the damned are cast down into hell, greeted by Charon the ferryman, who strikes them with his oar. On the left, the elect rise towards heaven.

The fresco received a mixed reception, some crying scandal at the sight of these bodies so often nude and indecent, or at the depiction of a Christ who was too young and without a beard.

A few years later, additions were made to conceal the indecent parts of the bodies … Other additions were made later still.

These frescoes were restored in the 1990s and made it possible to recover the magnificent original colours. The most recent additions that masked the bodies were removed, but the oldest ones were retained.

The wall opposite the Last Judgement also has frescoes, which complete the cycle of the life of Moses and of Christ.