. The buildings are arranged around a central courtyard. The 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 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.
Sistine Chapel , Michelangelo painted the
chapel ceiling between 1508 and 1512. Perhaps the best known of the palace chapels is the Sistine Chapel named in honor of
Sixtus IV (Francesco della Rovere). It is famous for its decoration that was
frescoed throughout by
Renaissance artists including
Michelangelo,
Sandro Botticelli,
Pietro Perugino,
Pinturicchio,
Domenico Ghirlandaio, and others. One of the primary functions of the chapel is as a venue for the election of each successive Pope in a
conclave of the
College of Cardinals. In this closed-door election, the cardinals choose a successor to the apostle and traditional first Pope,
Peter, who is (according to tradition) buried in the crypts of nearby St. Peter's Basilica.
Raphael Rooms This suite of rooms is famous for its frescos by a large team of artists working under
Raphael. They were originally intended as a suite of apartments for
Pope Julius II. He commissioned Raphael, then a relatively young artist from
Urbino, and his studio in 1508 or 1509 to redecorate the existing interiors of the rooms entirely. It was possibly Julius' intent to outshine the apartments of his predecessor (and rival)
Pope Alexander VI, as the
Stanze are directly above Alexander's Borgia Apartments. They are on the second floor, overlooking the south side of the
Belvedere Courtyard. From east to west, as a visitor would have entered the apartment, but reversing the sequence in which the
Stanze were frescoed, and also the route of the modern visitor, the rooms are the
Sala di Constantino ("Hall of Constantine"), the
Stanza di Eliodoro ("Room of Heliodorus"), the
Stanza della Segnatura (the earliest and the most admired) ("Room of the Signature") and the
Stanza dell'Incendio del Borgo ("The Room of the
Fire in the Borgo"). After the death of Julius in 1513, with two rooms frescoed,
Pope Leo X continued the program. Following Raphael's death in 1520, his assistants
Gianfrancesco Penni,
Giulio Romano and
Raffaellino del Colle finished the project with the frescoes in the
Sala di Costantino.
Borgia Apartments The Borgia Apartments is a suite of rooms in the palace adapted for personal use by
Pope Alexander VI (Rodrigo de Borja). He commissioned the Italian painter
Pinturicchio to lavishly decorate the apartments with frescoes. The paintings and frescoes, which were executed between 1492 and 1494, drew on a complex iconographic program that used themes from medieval encyclopedias, adding an
eschatological layer of meaning and celebrating the supposedly divine origins of the
Borgias. The rooms are variously considered a part of the
Vatican Library and
Vatican Museums. Some of the rooms are now used for the
Vatican Collection of Modern Religious Art, inaugurated by
Pope Paul VI in 1973. A permanent contemporary art gallery was installed on the premises in November 2021.
Papal apartments . Since the 17th century, the papal apartments have been the
official residence of the pope. They occupy much of the top floor of the Apostolic Palace. With the exception of
Pope Francis, who took up residence in the
Domus Sanctae Marthae, all reigning popes have resided in the palace since the move from the
Quirinal Palace in 1870. On 14 March 2026,
Pope Leo XIV took up residence in the apartments following the completion of renovation works.
Clementine Hall The Clementine Hall was established in the 16th century by
Pope Clement VIII in honor of
Pope Clement I, the third pope. Like other chapels and apartments in the palace, the hall is notable for its large collection of
frescos and other art.
Loggias The
loggias are corridors designed by
Donato Bramante and decorated by
Raphael with frescoes, which depict 52 biblical events divided into bays in groups of four. They served as inspiration to Italian architect
Giacomo Quarenghi while working on the Raphael loggias in the
Hermitage Museum. == Gallery ==