From 1 February, the Vatican Museums reopen to the public
After 88 days of forced closure, the second since the beginning of the health emergency, the Pope’s Museums will open their monumental doors again on 1 February to welcome back in safety - thanks also to the Vatican's Covid vaccination plan for staff, already underway - all citizens and tourists who wish to “re-embrace”, at least with their eyes, the precious artistic collections.
From Monday to Saturday, to accommodate the needs of families, from 08.30 a.m. to 06.30 p.m. (last admission 04.30 p.m.), always with compulsory online booking (reduced - no pre-sale fees).
Prior to the so-called “Covid era”, only the bombing of Rome in the summer of 1943 had achieved the dubious feat of forcing the closure of the Museum doors, for an even longer period (14 months) than the one we have just suffered. However, the wait has not been silent and inactive, as shown by the very popular virtual and digital life of the Institution.
Some exhibitions – already inaugurated but fortunately extended, such as “Collections in dialogue” or “Tempo divino” – may be admired “in real life”, along with the refurbishment, in the Collection of Contemporary Art, of rooms with previously unexhibited works or new acquisitions, such as those of Mario Sironi or of the artist Friar Sidival Fila.
Along the visit itinerary, for the first time it will be possible, after crossing the threshold of the Museum Anima Mundi, to see the Ethnological Materials Restoration Laboratory team in action, working in public view, and at the end of the museum tour, to be astonished by the Sistine Chapel, whose beauty is even more dazzling thanks to the periodic monitoring, maintenance and dust removal work that has just been completed.
The Vatican Gardens, as well as the archaeological area of the Necropolis of the Via Triumphalis, will also be open to the public again from Monday, while the Museum Complex and Gardens of Castel Gandolfo will have to wait until 6 February (open on Saturdays only, from 09.00 a.m. to 05.30 p.m., with last admission at 4.30 p.m.).