Vatican Museums virtual tour

This free 3D virtual tour of Vatican City covers the Vatican Museums and St Peter's in seven stops, from the Courtyard of the Pinecone to the Sistine Chapel, the basilica and its dome. Each stop is explained below, in the order the video shows it.

Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors · © OpenFreeMap · Terrain © Mapzen / AWS. Schematic 3D model of the museums and the basilica.

Every stop of the Vatican Museums virtual tour

Walls of the Vatican Museums along Viale Vaticano, near the museum entrance

Viale Vaticano

Entrance to the museums

Visitors enter the Vatican Museums from Viale Vaticano, not far from Piazza del Risorgimento. The whole state covers about 44 hectares, and half of that area is taken up by gardens.

Photo: "Muzeul Vatican" by Cezar Suceveanu (CC BY-SA 4.0).

The bronze pinecone in the Courtyard of the Pinecone, Vatican Museums

1. Courtyard of the Pinecone

Roman bronze, 2nd century

A colossal bronze pinecone, once a Roman fountain, stood in the atrium of old St Peter's before coming here. Moved here in 1608, it gave the courtyard its name; two lions of the pharaoh Nectanebo II flank it.

Photo: "Vatican Museum pinecone" by Kevin Chan (CC BY 2.5).

Coffered vault of the Round Hall in the Pio Clementino Museum

2. Pio Clementino Museum

Round Hall, 1779

Named after Popes Clement XIV and Pius VI, it grew from the classical sculpture collected by Julius II. Its Round Hall, with a vault modelled on the Pantheon, holds a red porphyry basin 13 metres round.

Photo: "Sala rotonda dome" by Joseolgon (CC BY 4.0).

Gallery of Maps

3. Gallery of Maps

120 metres long

Forty painted maps of the Italian regions and Church lands line the gallery, made for Pope Gregory XIII. Built in 1578-1580, it was frescoed in under two years to a plan by the cosmographer Egnazio Danti.

Room of the Segnatura in the Raphael Rooms, with the School of Athens fresco

4. Raphael Rooms

Painted 1508-1524

Four rooms of the papal apartment chosen by Julius II, decorated by Raphael and his school from 1508 to 1524. The Room of the Segnatura holds the School of Athens, with Plato and Aristotle at its centre.

Photo: "1 Estancia del Sello (Vista general I)" by 0ro1 (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Roof of the Sistine Chapel seen from the dome of St Peter's Basilica

5. Sistine Chapel

Ceiling painted 1508-1512

Named after Pope Sixtus IV, who had it restored in 1477-1480; Michelangelo painted the ceiling in 1508-1512. He returned for the Last Judgement in 1536-1541, and the conclave that elects the Pope meets here.

Photo: "Cappella Sistina - 2005" by Maus-Trauden (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Nave of St Peter's Basilica looking towards the baldachin

6. St Peter's Basilica

First stone laid in 1506

Entry is from St Peter's Square, through security checks set up in the right-hand colonnade. Begun under Julius II in 1506, it was completed by Carlo Maderno, who added the façade in 1608-1612.

Photo: "Inside of St. Peter's Basilica, Rome, Italy" by Christoph Strässler (CC BY-SA 2.0).

St. Peter's Dome

7. The Dome

Cross over 133 m high

Michelangelo built it up to the drum; Giacomo della Porta raised the rest in 22 months, by 1590. A lift or stairs lead to the terrace, then visitors walk the inner and outer rings of the dome.

St. Peter's Square seen from the basilica dome in Rome

St Peter's Square

By Bernini, completed 1667

Bernini's colonnade of 284 columns in four rows carries 140 statues, each over three metres tall. The state border runs along a marble strip at the edge of the square, and it can be crossed freely.

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