The Vatican Museums (Italian: Musei Vaticani; Latin: Musea Vaticana) are the public museums of the Vatican City. They display works from the immense collection amassed by the Catholic Church and the papacy throughout the centuries, including several of the best-known Roman sculptures and most important masterpieces of Renaissance art in the world. The museums contain roughly 70,000 works, of which 20,000 are on display,[2] and currently employ 640 people who work in 40 different administrative, scholarly, and restoration departments.[5]
Pope Julius II founded the museums in the early 16th century.[6] The Sistine Chapel, with its ceiling and altar wall decorated by Michelangelo, and the Stanze di Raffaello (decorated by Raphael) are on the visitor route through the Vatican Museums,[7] considered among the most canonical and distinctive works of Western and European art.
In 2024, the Vatican Museums were visited by 6.8 million people.[8] They ranked second in the list of most-visited art museums and museums in the world after the Louvre.[9]
There are 24 galleries, or rooms, in total, with the Sistine Chapel, notably, being the last room visited within the Museum.[10]
