The Stanza della Segnatura (Raphael Rooms)

The Stanza della Segnatura in the Vatican's Stanze di Raffaello (Raphael Rooms) is a papal apartment frescoed by Raphael with the School of Athens and other masterpieces

Vatican Museums—Raphael Rooms' Stanza della Segnatura
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
Book tickets: Select Italy or Viator.com

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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Vatican tours
• Skip the Line: Vatican Museums Walking Tour including Sistine Chapel, Raphael's Rooms and St Peter's
• Context: Arte Vaticana: Our Vatican Tour including Sistine Chapel and St. Peters (with reservations)
• Context: Vatican Collections
• Skip the Line: Vatican in One Day
• Skip the Line: Vatican Museums Tickets
• Private Tour: Vatican Museums Walking Tour
• Context: Vatican for Families
• Private Viewing of the Sistine Chapel and Vatican Museums
• Context: Afterhours Vatican Museums Visit
• Context: Evening Vatican 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 second Raphael Room is perhaps the highlight, the Stanza della Segnatura (1508–11), containing Raphael's famous School of Athens (pictured above).

The School of Athens fresco in the Raphael rooms of the Vatican.This mythical gathering of the philosophers from across the ages is also a catalog of the Renaissance, with many philosophers actually bearing portraits of Raphael's greatest fellow artists.

These include his mentor the architect Bramante (on the right as balding Euclid, bent over as he draws on a chalkboard), Leonardo da Vinci (as Plato, the bearded patriarch in the center pointing heavenward), and Raphael himself (looking out at us from the lower right corner next to his white-robed buddy Il Sodoma).

Raphael's Parnassus in the Stanza della Segnatura.In the midst of painting this masterpiece, Raphael took a sneak peek at what his heretofore rival Michelangelo was busy painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel down the hall.

He was so impressed that he returned to the School of Athens and added in a sulking portrait of Michelangelo (as Heraclitus) sitting on the steps in his stonecutter's boots. (We know he added it because his original cartoon, or full-scale preparatory drawing, survived.)

It was a true moment of growth for the cocky young master, who realized even he could learn from the genius of another. In fact, he soon adapted his style and color palate, reflecting Michelangelo's influence.

Raphael's The Disputation of the Sacrament in the Stanza della Segnatura in the Vatican, Rome
Raphael's Disputation of the Sacrament in the Stanza della Segnatura.Another important fresco here is the Disputation of the Sacrament, with three more portraits. Toward the middle of the right side, half-hidden behind a golden-robed church dignitary, stands a dour-looking man in red with a laurel-leaf crown—the Tuscan poet Dante, whose Inferno revolutionized Italian literature by using the Tuscan vernacular rather than Latin, and became the basis for the Italian language.

Look also on the far left for a pious-looking man in black with just a wisp of white hair remaining—it's a portrait of the monastic painter Fra' Angelico, whose great work in Rome lies just after these rooms. Bramante (again) bends over the railing in front and thumps a book (probably arguing some finer point of architecture).

The other Raphael Rooms

Stanza dell'Incendio - Includes the Borgo Fire.
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 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 at www.vatican.va. Or you can do it online via one of our partners:
- Select Italy: Vatican Museums and Sisitine Chapel
- Skip the Line: Vatican Museums Tickets
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 sites Viator.com or Context Travel:
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 Stanza della Segnatura (Raphael Rooms)

The Stanza della Segnatura in the Vatican's Stanze di Raffaello (Raphael Rooms) is a papal apartment frescoed by Raphael with the School of Athens and other masterpieces

The other Raphael Rooms

Tips

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