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Vatican City: St Peter's, the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel

Vatican City

Vatican City is a sovereign state. It is not one of Rome's rioni, it is not in Italy, and a traveller who walks up to St Peter's is entering another country. The Lateran Treaty, signed on 11 February 1929 and in force from the exchange of ratifications on 7 June 1929, created it, and the Governorate gives its area as 0.44 km2, or 44 hectares. Art. 3 of the Treaty states that St Peter's Square forms part of Vatican City, and it fixes the boundaries of the state only by the 1:5000 plan annexed to it as Allegato I. The Treaty describes the border in no other way. UNESCO inscribed Vatican City as a World Heritage property in 1984, under criteria (i)(ii)(iv)(vi) and at 44 hectares, separately from the Historic Centre of Rome.

  1. Free and unreserved, from the ordinary entrance in the square; Julius II laid the first stone on 18 April 1506 and Maderno built the facade between 1608 and 1612.

  2. Bernini finished it in 1667 after eleven years: an oval space with three centres, 196 by 149 metres, with 284 columns in four rows carrying 140 statues.

  3. 231 steps to the terrace and 320 more to the top, 551 in all, or 320 with the lift; 17 euro with stairs and 22 euro with lift, both including the basilica.

  4. Vaults of 1590 and 1591 under the basilica floor, with Bernini's four oratories at the base of the dome pillars and the tomb of Pius XII from 1958.

  5. Three to eleven metres below the nave floor, visited by request through the Fabbrica di San Pietro; 22 tomb buildings and around 1000 burials have been unearthed.

  6. Monday to Saturday 08.00 to 20.00, final entry 18.00, and free on the last Sunday of the month from 09.00 to 14.00, final entry 12.30.

  7. The Museums sell tickets online through tickets.museivaticani.va and warn that lookalike domains charge more; a ticket is valid on its day of issue and is not refundable.

  8. Michelangelo's ceiling was inaugurated on 1 November 1512 and the Last Judgement finished in the autumn of 1541; visitors are asked to keep silence inside.

  9. 120 metres long and 6 metres wide, hung with forty maps painted between 1578 and 1580 to Egnazio Danti's programme, under a ceiling of 51 panels.

  10. 460 paintings in eighteen rooms, from the Primitives to the nineteenth century, in Luca Beltrami's building inaugurated on 27 October 1932.

  11. Julius II's residence on the second floor of the Pontifical Palace, painted by Raphael and his school between 1508 and 1524.

  12. A Roman burial ground on terraced slopes beside the road, sold as its own Museums ticket and given as closed from 15 July to 3 September.

  13. About 22 hectares, half the territory, seen on a booked tour sold as a separate Museums ticket; the dress code applies here too.

  14. A working research library rather than a visitor site: it states that it does not offer regular public visits, and its reading rooms open Monday to Friday 09.00 to 17.20.

The state and its institutions

The Governorate gives the area of the state as 0.44 km2, that is 44 hectares, partly surrounded by walls, and counts five entrances, guarded by the Pontifical Swiss Guard and the Corps of Gendarmerie. Access to the Vatican Museums is from Viale Vaticano. The Governorate records 673 citizens of the State, and, in statistics to 31 December 2024, 882 residents counting citizens and non-citizens. Of the citizens, 458 live inside the walls, among them 120 members of the Pontifical Swiss Guard, and some 30 per cent of citizens, mostly diplomatic staff, do not reside inside the State. The same statistics to 31 December 2024 give 66 cardinals who are Vatican citizens, ten of them living inside; six deaths in 2024; 21 squares; and 30 covered roads.

The Pontifical Swiss Guard was founded in 1506, and the Governorate says that according to tradition the uniforms were designed by Michelangelo. L'Osservatore Romano was founded in 1861 and the state has broadcast by radio since 1931. Vehicles carry the codes SCV, for the bodies of the State and the Holy See, and CV, for citizens and permit holders. The Holy See's postal form is 00120 Citta del Vaticano, and the Vatican Museums publish their own address, on the same street a visitor queues in, as Viale Vaticano, 00165 Rome.

The Governorate is the body through which the services of the state are run, and the Directorate of Museums and Cultural Heritage, which runs the Vatican Museums, sits under it. A small strip of Italian territory known as the Ricciolo d'Italia lies beside St Peter's Square. Its extent is not described in the Lateran Treaty, and in practice it is often treated as Vatican ground.

Getting there

The Vatican Museums give their own directions: Metro line A towards Battistini, stations Ottaviano or Cipro; bus 49, which stops in the square in front of the Museums; buses 32, 81 and 982 at Piazza del Risorgimento; buses 492 and 990 at Via Leone IV and Via degli Scipioni; tram 19 at Piazza del Risorgimento; and a taxi rank in the square in front of the Museums. The Museums entrance is on Viale Vaticano. St Peter's Basilica has a different door altogether, and the two are not the same visit.

The Fabbrica di San Pietro describes the way into the basilica plainly: access begins with the security checks by the Italian State Police, whose stations are in the right hemicycle of St Peter's Square looking towards the basilica. Entry to the basilica itself is free and needs no reservation, from the ordinary entrance in the square. Worshippers and celebrants have a dedicated route, with identification at an indicated entrance gate and staff accompaniment to prayer and celebration and then to the exit; anyone who wants to look round afterwards re-enters by the standard entrances.

A dress code applies across the Museums, the Sistine Chapel, St Peter's Basilica and the Vatican Gardens: no sleeveless or low-cut garments, no shorts above the knee, no miniskirts, no hats. The Museums cloakroom is free and compulsory for luggage, suitcases, rucksacks and packages, and for knives, scissors, metal tools, medium and large umbrellas, sticks, tripods, video cameras, banners and signs; visitors going on to the basilica are told not to leave baggage in the Museums.

Tickets, hours and closures

The Vatican Museums open Monday to Saturday from 08.00 to 20.00, with final entry at 18.00, and on the last Sunday of the month from 09.00 to 14.00, final entry 12.30, with free entry and guided tours on reservation, except where that Sunday falls on Easter Sunday, 29 June, 25 December, 26 December or 31 December. Visitors are asked to leave the halls 30 minutes before closing. The Museums are closed on Sundays other than the last of the month; on 1 and 6 January; 11 February; 19 March; 6 April; 1 May; 29 June; 14 and 15 August; 1 November; and 8, 25 and 26 December. The full ticket is 20.00 euro without online booking, or 20.00 plus 5.00 euro for Skip the Line booked on the official site; reduced is 10.00 euro plus 5.00; schools 5.00 plus 2.00; students, pilgrimages and university institutes 10.00 plus 5.00; seminaries and religious colleges 5.00 plus 2.00. The Museums state that tickets are sold online through tickets.museivaticani.va and warn that lookalike domains charge higher prices; a ticket admits to the Museums and the Sistine Chapel on the day it is issued, and is not refundable.

Entry to St Peter's Basilica is free and unreserved. The Fabbrica di San Pietro publishes basilica opening hours of 7.00 am to 8.00 pm from 1 June. Guided tours run Monday to Saturday 09.30 to 17.30, last registration 17.00, and on Sundays and Vatican holidays 13.30 to 15.30, last registration 15.00, with a themed tour on Bernini and the Barberini. The sacrament of Reconciliation is available Monday to Saturday 07.00 to 12.30 and 16.00 to 19.00, and Sunday 07.00 to 13.00 and 16.00 to 19.00, with continuous Eucharistic Adoration in the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament from the end of the 08.30 Mass to the Benediction at day's end.

The dome is ticketed separately. The Fabbrica gives winter hours of 07.30 to 17.00 for 26 October 2025 to 28 March, and summer hours of 07.00 to 18.00 for 29 March 2026 to 25 October 2026, and the same ranges for the Petros eni exhibition. Its booking portal lists the dome with stairs, including the basilica, at 17 euro, and the dome with lift at 22 euro. The Vatican Gardens are sold as their own ticket category and are seen on a booked tour; the Necropolis of the Via Triumphalis is another, and the Vatican Necropolis under the basilica is visited by request through the Fabbrica. Tickets for General Audiences and for the Holy Father's liturgical celebrations are always free of charge: lay faithful request them from the Prefecture of the Papal Household, and bishops, priests and deacons from the Office for the Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff.

Frequently asked questions

Is St Peter's Square in Italy or in Vatican City?
Art. 3 of the Lateran Treaty says that St Peter's Square forms part of Vatican City, and adds that it continues to be normally open to the public. The same article fixes the boundaries of the state only by the 1:5000 plan annexed to the Treaty as Allegato I, and the Treaty gives no description of them in words. What a visitor meets in the square is the queue for the basilica: the Fabbrica di San Pietro places the security checks by the Italian State Police in the right hemicycle, looking towards the basilica.
Do I need a ticket for St Peter's Basilica?
No. The Fabbrica di San Pietro states that the basilica can still be entered without a reservation, from the ordinary entrance in St Peter's Square, and that entry is free. Access begins with security checks by the Italian State Police, whose stations are in the right hemicycle of the square looking towards the basilica. The dome is a separate ticket: the Fabbrica's booking portal lists the dome with stairs, including the basilica, at 17 euro, and the dome with lift at 22 euro. With stairs it is 231 steps to the terrace and 320 more to the top, 551 in all; with the lift, 320 steps remain.
When are the Vatican Museums free, and where do I buy a ticket?
The Museums give free entry on the last Sunday of the month, 09.00 to 14.00 with final entry at 12.30, except where that Sunday falls on Easter Sunday, 29 June, 25 December, 26 December or 31 December. Children under 7 enter free, as do directors of museum institutions and heritage bodies, ICOM and ICOMOS card holders, and university teachers in archaeology, art history, architecture and ethnology on written request. Visitors with certified invalidity of at least 67 per cent, and holders of the European Disability Card, enter free and are guaranteed priority entry without queuing, with a companion where the visitor is not self-sufficient; the permit is issued on the day at the Special Permits or Welcome Desk in the entrance hall. The Museums state that tickets are sold online through tickets.museivaticani.va and warn that lookalike domains charge higher prices.
Can I get into the Vatican Gardens or the necropolises?
The Vatican Gardens are seen on a booked tour, sold by the Museums as a separate ticket category, and the dress code applies to them. The Necropolis of the Via Triumphalis is also a Museums ticket, and the Museums list it as closed from 15 July to 3 September. The Vatican Necropolis beneath the basilica is a different site altogether, run by the Fabbrica di San Pietro: it is visited by request, arranged through the Fabbrica.
How do I get tickets for a papal audience?
The Holy See states that tickets for the General Audiences and the Holy Father's liturgical celebrations are always free of charge. Lay faithful request them from the Prefecture of the Papal Household; bishops, priests and deacons request them from the Office for the Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff. No day, time or venue is stated by those two offices in public.
Which famous Roman churches and palaces are not in Vatican City?
San Giovanni in Laterano, Santa Maria Maggiore, San Paolo fuori le Mura, the Palazzo della Cancelleria, the palace of Propaganda Fide, the Palazzo del Sant'Uffizio and the Palazzo dei Convertendi are Lateran Treaty Art. 15 properties. Art. 15 says of them, in terms, that they form part of the territory of the Italian State, and grants them the immunities that international law gives to the seats of the diplomatic agents of foreign States. A visitor to any of them is on Italian soil and under Italian law. Art. 16 is a different list with a different grant: the Gregorian University, the Biblical, Oriental and Archaeological Institutes, the Russian Seminary, the Lombard College, the two Sant'Apollinare palaces and the clergy retreat house at Santi Giovanni e Paolo have only exemption from taxes and protection from expropriation, and are not extraterritorial.

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