Vatican Chapel of Nicholas V

The Vatican's Cappella Niccolina (Chapel of Nicholas V) was frescoed by Fra' Angelico

Vatican Museums—Cappella Niccolina
Viale Vaticano (on the north side of the Vatican City walls, between where Via Santamaura and the Via Tunisi staircase hit Viale Vaticano; about a 5–10 minute walk around the walls from St. Peter's).
tel. +39-06-6988-4676 or 06-6988-4947
www.museivaticani.va or www.vatican.va
Adm
Book tickets: Select Italy or Viator.com

Open Mon–Sat 9am–6pm (last entry: 4pm)
* May 3–July 16 and Sept 6–Oct 25 also open Fridays 7–11pm with advance booking (» more)
* Open the last Sun of each month 9:30am–2pm—and it's free!... and terribly crowded
* For other closed dates, see "tips" below

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Beato Angelico freosced the Capella Niccolinia, or Chapel of Nicholas V, in the Vatican
Beato Angelico frescoed the Cappella Niccolina, or Chapel of Nicholas V, in the Vatican.After visiting the Raphael Rooms' Sala di Constantino, you pop out into the Sala dei Chiaroscuro, with a 16th-century wooden ceiling bearing the Medici arms and a little doorway in the corner many people miss and most tour groups skip. Their loss.

Through this doorway is the Vatican's most gorgeous hidden corner, the closet-size Chapel of Nicholas V (1447–49), colorfully frescoed floor-to-ceiling with gentle, early Renaissance Tuscan genius by that devout little monk of a painter, Fra' Angelico.

Sadly, for some reason (crowd control, I imagine) authorities have recently begun putting a bar across the doorway so you can't actually enter the room. The best you can do is sort of lean over the bar and crane your neck for a peek at these glorious frescoes.

The Vatican Museums
★★★ Pinacoteca (Painting Gallery)
Papal Apartments
    ★★ Raphael Rooms
    Borgia Apartments
    Chapel of Nicholas V
★★★ Sistine Chapel
★Pio-Clementine Museum
Modern Religious Art
Chiaramonti/New Wing
Gregorian Egyptian Museum
Gregorian Etruscan Museum
Gregorian Profane Museum
Pio Christian Museum
Missionary-Ethnological Museum
Vatican Gardens

Tips

Planning your day: You peek, you keep going. It takes all of 5 minutes—but expect to spend all day at the Vatican.
The Vatican Museums are most crowded on Sundays (because they're free) and many Wednesdays (because in the morning St. Peter's itself is often closed for the papal audience in the piazza, so everyone who doesn't have tickets walks around the walls to kill time inside the museums, and by afternoon all the audience-goers join them).
Book ahead: You can book entry tickets ahead of time to help avoid the lines, which can last for up to an hour or so in the summer. However, this adds a €4 fee to the already steep admission of €16 at www.vatican.va. Or you can do it online via one of our partners:
Book a Vatican tour: There are two-hour tours of the museums and Sistine Chapel available (in English usually four time a day) for €32 per person—3-hour tours that also include St. Pater's cost €37. Note, though, that those prices include the €16 admisison ticket and €4 booking fee, so the tour portion actually only costs an extra €12–€15. For more info: tel. +39-06-6988-3145 or www.vatican.va. If you prefer a private guided tour of the Vatican and its museums, book one via our partner sites Viator.com or Context Travel:
The Vatican Museums reopen Fridays evenings in summer

The Vatican has been experimenting with spring-to-fall evening hours on Fridays, allowing a limited number of visitors—upon advance booking only—to wander the mooonlit galleries without the crowds.

Dates (2103):
• May 3–July 16
• Sept 6–Oct 25

Hours: 7am to 11pm on Fridays (last entry: 9:30pm).

Cost: €16 (+€4 booking fee)

Galleries open on Friday nights:
• Sistine Chapel
• Raphael Rooms
• Pio-Clementine Museum
• Egyptian Museum
• B orgia Apartments (some rooms)
• Museum of Modern Reglious Art

More info: www.vatican.va.
To book: Viator.com The Vatican Museums are closed Sundays—except on the last Sunday of the month...
The Vatican Museums are free on the last Sunday of each month, when they are intensely crowded and stay open until 2pm (last entry: 12:30pm). They're also free on Sept. 27 (World Tourism Day). If the Sunday falls on a church holiday, however, they're closed (see next tip).
The Vatican Museums are closed on all church holidays: Jan. 1, Jan. 6, Feb. 11, Mar. 19, Easter Sunday and Monday, May 1, June 29 (Feast of St. Peter and Paul—major Roman holiday), Aug. 14–15 (everything is closed in Rome on Aug. 15; head to Santa Maria Maggiore for mass with a "snowfall" of rose petals), Nov. 1, Dec. 25 (Merry Christmas!), and Dec. 26 (Santo Stefano—huge in Italy).
Note that the Vatican Museums close surprisingly early (last entry at 4pm, doors close 6pm). So see them first, then walk around the walls to visit St. Peter's.
Dress code?: Recently, the Vatican (or at least some guards) seems to have decided that you must dress "appropriately" to visit any part of Vatican City—including the museums—and not just St. Peter's, where a dress code has long applied. Err on the side of caution and make sure you arrive with no bare shoulders, knees or midriffs. (If it's hot and you want to wear a tank top around town that day, just bring a light shawl to cover your shoulders while inside; on packing the right items for an Italy trip.)
How to get to the Vatican Museums: Cipro-Musei Vaticani is the closest Metro stop (on the A line, about 5 blocks northwest of the entrance; just follow the crowds). Otherwise, bus 49 stops right in front of the museum entrance (you can catch it from Piazza Cavour, or anywhere along Via Cescenzio, which passes the very northern tip of the piazza around Castel Sant'Angelo). You can also take one of many lines to Piazza del Risorgimento, tucked into a inside corner of the Vatican walls a short walk east of the musuems entrance: 23, 32, 81, 271, 492, 590, 982, 990.

The Papal Suites: Raphael Rooms, Borgia Apartments, Chapel of Nicholas V
All the Vatican Museums
St. Peter's Basilica - Capital of Christendom
Museums in Rome
Churches in Rome
An audience with the Pope
All the works by Michelangelo in Rome
More sights in the Vatican Borgo neighborhood

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This material was last updated May 2013. All information was accurate at the time.

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Vatican Chapel of Nicholas V

The Vatican's Cappella Niccolina (Chapel of Nicholas V) was frescoed by Fra' Angelico

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