The Raphael Rooms

The Vatican's Stanze di Raffaello (Raphael Rooms) are a series of papal apartments frescoed by Raphael with the School of Athens and other masterpieces

Vatican Museums—Raphael Rooms
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. +39-06-6988-4947
www.vatican.va
Open Mon–Sat 9am–6pm (last entry: 4pm)
Also 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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Viator.com tours
• Skip the Line: Vatican Museums Walking Tour including Sistine Chapel, Raphael's Rooms and St Peter's
• Skip the Line: Vatican in One Day
• Skip the Line: Vatican Museums Tickets
• Private Viewing of the Sistine Chapel and Vatican Museums
• Private Tour: Vatican Museums Walking Tour
• Private Tour: Vatican Museums and St Peter's Art History Walking Tour
• Skip the Line: Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel Tour
• Skip the Line: Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel and St Peter's Basilica Half-Day Walking Tour

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The Stanza della Segnatura in Rome's Vatican, frescoed by RaphaelPope Julius II didn't like his predecessor's digs (the Borgia Apartments; we'll get to those), so in 1508—just a few months after commissioning Michelangelo to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel down the hall—Julius hired Raphael to decorate these new chambers.

As Raphael's fame and commissions grew, he turned more of his attention away from this job and his assistants handled much of the painting in the first and last rooms you visit.

Painting Over Masterpieces
Artistic commissions have been rife with controversy long before N.E.A. grants were contested in the U.S. Congress.

Many were outraged in 1508 when the Pope allowed a young upstart artist from the boondocks to whitewash over frescoes by Castagno, Piero della Francesca, Signorelli, Perugino, Sodoma, and Peruzzi and cover the walls with his own works. But today, these Raphael Rooms are considered some of Western art's greatest masterpieces.

Michelangelo fared no better, not even 40 years after he was already established as the world's greatest living artist. There was plenty of grumbling when, in order to paint the Sistine Chapel's Last Judgment in 1535, the master had to destroy the two Perugino frescoes on that wall

But in the Stanza della Segnatura and Stanza di Eliodoro (the first two actually painted), the master's brush was busy.

Here are the rooms in the order (generally) that you visit them, with each one's relative interest indicated by the number of stars:

Stanza dell'Incendio - Includes the Borgo Fire.
Stanza della Segnatura - Includes the famous School of Athens.
Stanza di Eliodoro - Includes the Expulsion of Heliodorus.
Stanza di Constantino - Includes the Vision of the Cross.

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: The Raphael Rooms take about 25–40 minutes (more if you're a true fan), but expect to spend all day at the Vatican. Two days if you can swing it. Even on a tight schedule, expect to pretty much spend one full day seeing the Vatican Museums and St. Peter's together. They're worth it. Warning: The ticket office closes 2 hours before the museum, with the last entry at 4pm.
Book ahead: You can book entry tickets ahead of time at www.vatican.va 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 €15.
Book a Vatican tour: There are two-hour tours of the museums and Sistine Chapel available (in English usually at 10:30am) for €30–€35 per person. 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 site Viator.com.

     • Skip the Line: Vatican Museums Walking Tour including Sistine Chapel, Raphael's Rooms and St Peter's
     • Skip the Line: Vatican in One Day
     • Skip the Line: Vatican Museums Tickets
     • Private Tour: Vatican Museums Walking Tour
     • Private Viewing of the Sistine Chapel and Vatican Museums
     • Private Tour: Vatican Museums and St Peter's Art History Walking Tour
     • Skip the Line: Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel Tour
     • Skip the Line: Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel and St Peter's Basilica Half-Day Walking Tour
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, May 21, June 11, 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. 8, Dec. 25 (Merry Christmas!), Dec. 26 (Santo Stefano—huge in Italy).
Note that the Vatican Museums close surprisingly early (last entry 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 7 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)

The Raphael Rooms: Stanza della Segnatura, Stanza di Eliodoro, Stanza dell'Incendio, Stanza di Constantino
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 February 2011. All information was accurate at the time.

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The Raphael Rooms

The Vatican's Stanze di Raffaello (Raphael Rooms) are a series of papal apartments frescoed by Raphael with the School of Athens and other masterpieces

Tips

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