Free museum visits in Rome every first Sunday of the month
Would you like to delight your eyes with incredible artistic masterpieces and increase your cultural knowledge on roman artistic heritage free of charge?
Read our guideline & tips and be ready!
The initiative promoted by the Vatican, on every first Sunday of the month, allows free access to the Vatican Museums. Admission is open to everyone, completely free, and those who want to, can enjoy the wonder of seeing an absolutely unique artistic heritage up close, among the largest and most interesting in the world.
The Vatican Museums are located in Viale Vaticano, within the Vatican City State, and house one of the priceless art collections, containing precious treasures accumulated by the Popes over the centuries. Here is a list of the most important museums contained within the Vatican Museums to visit for free and the most significant works not to be missed.
Click on this link to download the free museum calendar: calendario_musei
List of free museums in Rome on the last Sunday of the month:
Pio Clementino Museum
Established to preserve, enhance and promote knowledge of the Greco-Roman collections of the popes, the museum is spread over 14 exhibition rooms, each of which displays different works. Of great impact is the Octagonal Courtyard, the first place for the collection of ancient Vatican statues, which housed the Laocoon group and the Belvedere Torso.
Chiaramonti Museum
Founded by the Pope of the same name in the early nineteenth century, it consists of a large arched gallery on the sides of which sculptures, friezes and sarcophagi are exhibited. The new wing, the New Arm, houses famous statues such as the Augustus of Prima Porta.
Gregorian Egyptian Museum
Commissioned by Pope Gregory XVI, the museum houses a large collection of artifacts from ancient Egypt, including mummies, papyri, hieroglyphic inscriptions, the famous Book of the Dead and the Grassi Collection. Most of the material comes from the Villa d’Adriano, in Tivoli, and is arranged over 9 rooms, of which the last two contain works from ancient Mesopotamia and Assyria.
Pio Christian Museum
This museum houses collections of Christian antiquities that were previously exhibited in the Lateran Museum. Founded by Pius IX in 1854, here are preserved statues, sarcophagi, writings and various artifacts dating from the sixth century onwards. Interesting to see is the statue of the Good Shepherd, restored in the eighteenth century, the first high relief of a sarcophagus, which depicts a young man with a sleeveless tunic and a lamb shoulders.
Ethnological Missionary Museum
In addition to objects from non-European cultures from the Universal Missionary Exposition, the museum also welcomes gifts made by religious missionary congregations or by individuals to various popes. Among other works, the museum also houses the Borgiano museum, which preserves the objects collected by Cardinal Stefano Borgia or donated by the missionaries to Propaganda Fide.
Collection of Modern Religious Art
The collection contains works by famous artists such as Francis Bacon, Marc Chagall, Carlo Carrà, Giorgio de Chirico, Salvador Dalí, Paul Gauguin, Felice Mina, Kandinsky, Vincent van Gogh and Matisse.
Upper Galleries
The galleries on the upper floor are something unique. The first to see is the Galleria dei Candelabri, characterized by a long room with a decorated ceiling and so called because it houses the magnificent candelabra from Hadrian’s Villa in Tivoli. The Tapestry Gallery contains the tapestries commissioned in the 16th century by Pope Clement VII to decorate the Sistine Chapel, made by Raphael’s students with precious Brussels fabrics. In addition, the Gallery of Geographical Maps is spectacular, containing 40 maps frescoed on the walls and which is included in the corridor that leads from the Vatican Museums to the Sistine Chapel.
Picture gallery
The Pinacoteca is a part of the Vatican Museums full of extraordinary works: here are in fact the greatest masters of painting including Giotto, Leonardo, Raphael and Caravaggio. Not to be missed are Giotto’s Stefaneschi Triptych, Raphael’s Transfiguration, Caravaggio’s Deposition and Leonardo da Vinci’s San Girolamo.
Sistine Chapel
Commissioned by Pope Sisto IV and built between 1475 and 1481, the Sistine Chapel is an internationally renowned masterpiece: its vault, decorated by the famous Michelangelo Buonarroti, makes it one of the most beautiful works of art in the world.
To finish, the Vatican Museums also include a series of rooms that make the itinerary interesting and precious. These are the Biga Room, the Sobieski Room, the Immaculate Conception Room, the Apartment of St. Pius V, the Borgia Apartment, the Chiaroscuri Room and the Raphael Rooms.
How to make a thorough visit
The time to visit free museums in Rome on the last Sunday of the month is from 9:00 to 12:30, but to be sure to be able to see at least part of the vast amount of masterpieces that are found in the various museums it is essential to queue early, otherwise it is preferable to contact a guide to learn more about the works.
The guided tour solution, is also recommended for those who do not want to get stressed out in the crowd and really want to get to the heart of the wonder of the works, perhaps choosing a different day from when there is free admission.
It is also possible to resort to an economic guide, but it is clear that professionalism and the knowledge base decreases, therefore, to enjoy a satisfactory visit to the Vatican Museums it is better to contact competent and expert guides, even if more expensive, who however manage to recreate the atmosphere with their story, revive the masterpieces of the artistic heritage of this wonderful city.
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