A very common Rome sightseeing question is how do I visit the Sistine Chapel.
The answer is: Buy tickets to the Vatican Museum. At the end of the Vatican Museum you will enter the Sistine Chapel. The Sistine Chapel is a Rome sightseeing highlight and one of the top 10 sightseeing highlights in Italy.
Michelangelo’s famous paintings on the ceiling has drawn millions of visitors to the chapel.
You may purchase tickets to the Vatican Museum directly through the Vatican Museum website. We suggest you choose a time that works for your itinerary and buy skip the line tickets.
You may also join one of our small group Vatican tours that are arranged before the Vatican opens to the general public. In this case you’ll be able to enjoy the Sistine Chapel without the uncomfortable shoulder to shoulder crowds. You may book a private tour of the Vatican Museum by looking at this page.
The Sistine Chapel may be a most popular destination because of Michelangelo’s frescoes on the ceiling and front wall. It is also an incredibly important place for Catholics. This is where the Cardinals meet to pick a new Pope.
Pope Sixtus IV commissioned a team of Renaissance painters to fresco the walls. The group included Sandro Botticelli, Pietro Perugino, Pinturicchio, Domenico Ghirlandaio and Cosimo Roselli. They completed their work in 1482. In 1483 Sixtus IV celebrated the first mass in the Sistine Chapel for the Feast of the Assumption, at which ceremony the chapel was consecrated and dedicated to the Virgin Mary.
Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel between 1508 and 1512. This Renaissance painting is a masterpiece without precedent. Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel frescoes changed the course of Western art. Then in 1535 he was commissioned by Pope Alexander to paint The Last Judgement, which was completed in 1541.
Click here for a virtual tour of the Sistine Chapel.
For more about the Sistine Chapel and its importance to Western art history watch the video below: