An Amazing World in My Eyes: The Vatican (Part 2.)

Panorama of the gardens from atop St. Peter's Basilica

Tower of Nicholas V

Palace of Sixtus V

The Pope's window from which he delivers the angelus.

The Papal apartments is the non-official designation for the collection of apartments, which are private, state, and religious, that wrap around a courtyard (the Courtyard of Sixtus V, Cortile di Sisto V) on two sides of the third (top) floor of the Apostolic Palace in Vatican City.

The apartments include about ten large rooms including a vestibule, a small studio office for the papal secretary, the pope's private study, the pope's bedroom in the corner of the building, a medical suite (which includes dental equipment and equipment for emergency surgery), a dining room, a small living room, and the kitchen. There is a roof garden and staff quarters for the nuns (German Benedictines) who run the Prefecture of the Pontifical Household (Papal Household). It is from the window of his small study that the pope greets and blesses pilgrims to Saint Peter's Square on Sundays. The private library has been described as a "vast room with two windows overlooking Saint Peter's Square." The pope's private chapel occupies the top storey on the east side of the Cortile di Sisto V.

1 St. Peter's Basilica 2 Sistine Chapel 3 Sala Regia (Royal Hall) 4 Scala Regia 4b Scala Regia (part below the Sala Regia) 5 Cappella Paolina 6 Sala Ducale (Ducal Hall) 7 Northern arm of the colonnades 8 St. Peter's Square 9 Benedictine assembly hall

A model of the palace in the Vatican Museums. The buildings are arranged around a central courtyard

The Apostolic Palace is run by the Prefecture of the Pontifical Household. The palace is more accurately a series of self-contained buildings within the well-recognized outer structure which is arranged around the Courtyard of Sixtus V (Cortile di Sisto V). It is located northeast of St Peter's Basilica and adjacent to the Bastion of Nicholas V and Palace of Gregory XIII.

The Apostolic Palace houses both residential and support offices of various functions as well as administrative offices not focused on the life and functions of the Pope himself.

Plan of the Apostolic Palace (1893–1901)

The Portone di Bronzo at the Vatican Apostolic Palace entrance.

Scala Regia by Gian Lorenzo Bernini

The official entrance to the Apostolic Palace is the Portone di Bronzo at the north side of St Peter's Square.

The door opens to the Scala Regia, which leads up to the Sala Regia, which in turn connects to the Sistine Chapel and the Pauline Chapel. Tourists are allowed to climb the staircase to enter the Sala Regia.

Scala Regia is a flight of steps in the Vatican City and is part of the formal entrance to the Vatican. It was designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini.

The Scala Regia was built by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger in the early 16th century and was restored by Gian Lorenzo Bernini from 1663 to 1666.

The site for the stairs, a comparatively narrow sliver of land between church and palace, is awkwardly shaped with irregular converging walls. Bernini used a number of typically theatrical, baroque effects in order to exalt this entry point into the Vatican. The staircase proper takes the form of a barrel-vaulted colonnade that necessarily becomes narrower at the end of the vista, exaggerating the distance. Above the arch at the beginning of this vista is the coat of arms of Alexander VII, flanked by two sculpted angels.

The statue of Constantine by Bernini shows the emperor in the traditional episode of the cross appearing to him before the battle of Ponte Milvio. Behind the statue a drape painted in red and gold (made in stucco) emphasizes the movement of the horse and the pictorial effect of the monument. The statue was criticized for the unnatural posture of the horse.

The Vision
The statue is completed by the cross and the inscription In hoc signo vinces (by adopting this symbol you will win).

Bernini renovated an existing stairway, that served as an entrance to the Sala Regia and had to connect the church to the palace. The old stairs dated from the 16th century and had been built by Bramante and Antonio da Sangallo the younger.

The Scala Regia is located between St Peter’s and the south wing of the Vatican palace. To gain access to the palace the visitor had to make all kinds of stra... See More

Gian Lorenzo needed much more than a corridor to create a beautiful stairway. The old one was narrow, quite dark and made a gloomy impression. The stairs ran under the old rooms of the palace , that were supported by the vaults of the corridor. Bernini radically renovated this corridor. A big window was built before the start of the steps and another at the landing halfway up the stairway. And finally a third window at the end of the stairs where a visitor has to make a 180 degree turn to walk up the Scala’s last flight of steps. This section leads to the door of the Sala Regia. Bernini did not make any major alterations to the narrow stairway just before the Sala Regia, he only put in a ceiling and new plastering on the walls. Bernini did create skylights in the new vault.

Coat of arms of Pope Alexander VII

Detail of the decoration
The decoration is extremely rich: you may notice that the flowers are all different.

Statue of Charlemagne
The statue of Constantine was matched in the Portico by a statue of Charlemagne (who was crowned in S. Pietro in 800). This too is a very complex monument with a combination of sculpture and painting and a sophisticated perspective. It was built during the pontificate of Pope Clement XI, whose coat of arms decorates the ceiling of this section of the Portico. The statue is by Agostino Cornacchini. Charlemagne is parading like an XVIIIth century gentleman.

View from top The Scala Regia

The chapel of Saints Peter and Paul , better known by the name of the Pauline chapel (from the name of Pope Paul III who had it designed, built and frescoed), is a chapel of the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican City .

It had the functions of a "parva" palatine chapel, that is, a small one, as opposed to the "magna" chapel, that is, the Sistine Chapel . Here the Blessed Sacrament was exposed and, until 1670 , it was used during the conclave to collect vows, by virtue of its proximity to the Sistine Chapel , from which it is separated only from the Sala Regia

View from the dome of San Pietro of the Apostolic Palace : the Pauline chapel is in the lower right.

Stoning of Saint Stephen by Lorenzo Sabatini (left), Conversion of Saul by Michelangelo (center) and Baptism of Paul by Lorenzo Sabatini (right). Pauline Chapel, Pontifical Palaces, Vatican

Baptism of the centurion by Federico Zuccari (left), Crucifixion of St. Peter by Michelangelo (center) and Fall of Simon Mago by Lorenzo Sabatini (right). Pauline Chapel, Pontifical Palaces, Vatican

The altar. Pauline Chapel, Pontifical Palaces, Vatican

Southern wall of the Sala Regia and portal of the chapel Pauline Chapel, Pontifical Palaces, Vatican

Vault of the nave Pauline Chapel, Pontifical Palaces, Vatican

Release of Saint Peter from the prison of Federico Zuccari Pauline Chapel, Pontifical Palaces, Vatican

Stoup Pauline Chapel, Pontifical Palaces, Vatican

Dophor angels by Prospero Antichi
Pauline Chapel, Pontifical Palaces, Vatican

Vault of the apse
Pauline Chapel, Pontifical Palaces, Vatican

Tapestry of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple
Pauline Chapel, Pontifical Palaces, Vatican

Tapestry of Pentecost
Pauline Chapel, Pontifical Palaces, Vatican

The Pauline Chapel

The Sala Regia of the Apostolic Palace is a hall of honor located inside the Apostolic Palace , in the Vatican City ; its main entrance is the Scala Regia (along the western wall). From the Sala Regia you can access the Benediction Hall and the Ducal Room (eastern wall) and the Pauline chapels (southern wall) and Sistine (western wall).