Apostolic Palace

There is no exact information about the beginning of the construction of the Vatican Palace: some attribute it to Konstantin the Great , others attribute the original construction to the time of Pope Symmachus (VI century). It is only certain that during the arrival of Charlemagne in Rome for coronation, the palace on the Vatican hill served as the residence of Pope Leo III ; but then the palace was neglected, and the residence of the pope was transferred to the Lateran Palace . Only since the popes returned from Avignon (1377) did the Vatican become a permanent papal residence and expanded with a number of grandiose outbuildings.

Under Sixtus IV (1471) the famous Sistine Chapel was built . Under Innocent VIII (1490), the Belvedere Palace was built near the Vatican, which was connected by the architect Donato Bramante to the Vatican with two magnificent galleries , on behalf of Pope Julius II (1503). Bramante was also begun surrounding the courtyard of St. Damaza lodges that are later finished and painted by Raphael and his students. Pope Paul III built the chapel Paulinskaya and next to it the so-called Royal Hall (Sala regia). Under Pius IV and Gregory XIII , the northern and eastern wings of the lodges appeared, and Sixtus V built a transverse gallery, which houses the Vatican Apostolic Library . Clement XIV and Pius VI foundations. so called The Pius Clement Museum , and Pius VII - the Chiaramonti Museum and held the second transverse gallery, the so-called Braccio Nuovo (1817-1822). Gregory XVI founded the museums of Etruscan and Egypt, and finally, Pope Pius IX covered the glass roof of the Lodge of Raphael and built the fourth wall of the courtyard of St. Damaza

The Vatican Palace is not a homogeneous architectural whole; it is a collection of palaces, halls, galleries, chapels, in style and time of construction belonging to different eras and comprising an unprecedented collection of treasures of architecture, painting and sculpture. The palace has up to 20 courtyards, more than 200 staircases and 12,000 rooms. In appearance, it is an irregular quadrangle stretching from south to north in an oblique direction from the church of St. Petra . The longitudinal - eastern and western - facades are formed by two galleries connecting the old Vatican with the Belvedere. The space between these galleries is divided by two transverse galleries: the Library and Braccio Nuovo into 3 courtyards. The first, closest to the Vatican, is called Belvedere. In the 3rd courtyard there is a garden Giardino della Pigna. Another large garden (Girardino Pontifico) is located to the west of the palace, on a hillside where the villa of Pope Pius IV , built by Pirro Ligorio, is located .

The southern (oldest) part of the palace

The main entrance is located on the right wing of the colonnade of St. Peter , near the equestrian statue of Constantine the Great. The main staircase (scala Regia) with a magnificent ionic colonnade (built under Urban VIII) leads to the Royal Hall (Sala Regia), which serves as the lobby for the Sistine and Pauline Chapels. The Sala Regia is adorned with beautiful frescoes by Vasari , Sammakini , the Zuccero brothers, Salviati and Sicchiolante .

The Pauline Chapel is remarkable for two frescoes by Michelangelo: “The Conversion of the Apostle Paul” and “The Crucifixion of Ap. Petra ”, significantly affected by the soot of wax candles. A service is held here during Easter. On the second floor there are the famous Raphael lodges and 4 rooms, the so-called Stanza of Raphael , which Raphael and his students painted on behalf of Popes Julius II and Leo Χ (1508-20). The Constantine Hall leads to the Sala de Chiroscuri (chiaroscuro hall), from where they exit onto the San Lorenzo chapel, on the one hand, with frescoes by Fra Angelico , and on the other, into the Gallery of the Lodges. But the main path to the Lodge is from the courtyard of St. Damaza is a magnificent staircase of 118 steps, built by Pope Pie IX.

In the 19th century, in the 5 halls of the third floor, behind the Raphael lodges, was located the Vatican Art Gallery, which contained a small number of paintings, which are the best works of great masters. Then, on March 19, 1908, the Vatican Pinacoteca was opened in one of the wings of the Belvedere Palace, for which in 1932 a new building was commissioned by order of Pope Pius XI.

Papa's own apartments and the audience hall are located around the courtyard of St. Damaza, from the side of the church of St. Petra.

Belvedere Palace

Belvedere Palace is occupied by the Pius Clement Museum . Two vestibules lead to the museum: a quadrangular, with the famous Belvedere torso of Hercules, and a round one, from where a view of the panorama of the city of Rome opens. Next to the round lobby is the Meleagra Hall, where a statue of this mythical hunter is exhibited. From the round lobby enter the octagonal courtyard, surrounded by a portico supported by 16 granite columns. Under the portico are sarcophagi, altars, fonts, bas-reliefs - all almost wonderful antique work. The world-famous statues flaunt in quadrangular niches: Apollo Belvedere , Laocoon and his sons , Hermes Belvedere and Perseus Canova .

From this courtyard enter the gallery of Statues, where between other works are Apollo Savrokton and Cupid Praxiteles, Sleeping Ariadne. From here, through the Hall of the Beasts (the so-called collection of remarkably executed sculptural figures of animals), they enter the hall of the Muses, octagonal, supported by 16 columns of Carrara marble, with antique statues of Apollo Massageti and the muses found in Tivoli. The Muse Hall leads to the Round Hall, with a dome on 10 marble columns, with antique mosaic flooring found in Otricoli. In this hall there is a pool of red porphyry, one of a kind in size and beauty, statues of Antinous, Ceres, Juno, Hercules and others. To the south of this hall is the hall of the Greek Cross, the so-called in shape; here are sarcophagi from red porphyry of St. Helena and Constance.

From here they go to the internal main staircase of the museum, built by Simoneti and decorated with 30 columns of red granite and two of black porphyry. The same staircase leads to the Egyptian Museum , founded by Pius VII, and to the 2nd floor, where the Candelabrum Gallery and the Etruscan Museum , founded by Gregory XVI and occupying Hall 13, with a rich collection of ancient Italian antiquities.

The staircase of the museum leads into the garden of della Pigna. In the end wall of the palace there is a semicircular niche (architect Pirro Ligorio , 1560) with a bronze Roman fountain in the shape of a cone ( Italian: Pigna ) of the 1st century, which gave the name to the whole garden.

Galleries Bramante and Braccio Nuovo

The northern end of the eastern Bramante Gallery and the Braccio Nuovo Gallery are occupied by the Chiaramonti Museum . Each side of the first gallery is divided into 30 compartments, furnished with a wonderful collection of statues, busts and bas-reliefs (Tiberius, Julius Caesar, Son, Silenus and others; busts: Cicero, Maria, Scipio Africanus and others). In the gallery of Braccio Nuovo statues: Augustus, Claudius, Titus, Euripides, Demosthenes, Minerva, etc .; busts: Marc Anthony, Lepidus, Hadrian, Trajan and others. From the gallery of Kiaramonte to the south, separated by a single lattice, there is the Museum of the Inscriptions (more than 3,000 monuments), founded by Pope Pius VII.

The following museums and halls are located in the western gallery of Bramante: 1) Museum of secular objects - a collection of antique utensils from various metals, bronze figurines of idols, precious stones and ivory carvings. 2) Museum of Sacred Objects - a collection of ancient church utensils found in catacombs and others. 3) Cabinet of papyri. 4) Aldobranda wedding hall. 5) The room of the Byzantine artists, in which Gregory XVI placed a collection of paintings from the XIII and XIV centuries. 6) Numismatic cabinet.

The Arazzi Gallery on the second floor of the western Bramante Gallery contains a precious collection of carpets executed on cardboard by Raphael and depicting the acts of the holy apostles.

• List of Vatican Museums

• Vatican // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Vladimir Sedov. Niche Belvedere XVIII-MMVI , 2006.