Pio Cristiano Museum

The Vatican's Pio Christian Museum contains some of the oldest Christian art in the world, some dating back to within 150 years of Christ's death

Vatican - Pio Cristiano Museum
Viale Vaticano (on the north side of the Vatican City walls, between where Via Santamaura and the Via Tunisi staircase hit Viale Vaticano; about a 5–10 minute walk around the walls from St. Peter's).
tel. +39-06-6988-4676 or 06-6988-4947
www.museivaticani.va or www.vatican.va
Adm
Book tickets: Select Italy or Viator.com

Open Mon–Sat 9am–6pm (last entry: 4pm)
* May 3–July 16 and Sept 6–Oct 25 also open Fridays 7–11pm with advance booking (» more)
* Open the last Sun of each month 9:30am–2pm—and it's free!... and terribly crowded
* For other closed dates, see "tips" below

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The first statue of Jesus: a 3rd century Good Shepherd in the Vatican's Pio Cristiano Museum
The earliest depiction of Christ in sculpture: a 3rd century Good Shepherd in the Pio Cristiano MuseumIf you wondered what Christian Art looked like when the people making it probably had grandparents who knew St. Peter personally, check out these paleo-Christian works dating from the 2nd to 6th centuries.

There are sarcophagi from the catacombs, lots of inscriptions—the most important collection of its kind in the world—and several statues, including the 3rd-century Good Shepherd, the earliest representation of Christ in existence (even if this beardless lad with long curly hair and a sheep over his shoulders is liekly a visual metaphor borrowed from pagan iconography, the fact remains: this is still the world's oldest statue of Jesus Christ).

The Pio Christian Museum, Gregorian Profane Museum, and Missionary-Ethnographic Museum are all housed in the 1960s structure through which you exit the Vatican complex. Only bother if you have the stamina for a bit more.

The Vatican Museums
★★★ Pinacoteca (Painting Gallery)
Papal Apartments
    ★★ Raphael Rooms
    Borgia Apartments
    Chapel of Nicholas V
★★★ Sistine Chapel
★Pio-Clementine Museum
Modern Religious Art
Chiaramonti/New Wing
Gregorian Egyptian Museum
Gregorian Etruscan Museum
Gregorian Profane Museum
Pio Christian Museum
Missionary-Ethnological Museum
Vatican Gardens

Tips

Planning your day: Spend about 20 minutes in here—but all day at the Vatican. Two days if you can swing it. Even on a tight schedule, expect to pretty much spend one full day seeing the Vatican Museums and St. Peter's together. They're worth it. Warning: The ticket office closes 2 hours before the museum, with the last entry at 4pm.
The Vatican Museums are most crowded on Sundays (because they're free) and many Wednesdays (because in the morning St. Peter's itself is often closed for the papal audience in the piazza, so everyone who doesn't have tickets walks around the walls to kill time inside the museums, and by afternoon all the audience-goers join them).
Book ahead: You can book entry tickets ahead of time to help avoid the lines, which can last for up to an hour or so in the summer. However, this adds a €4 fee to the already steep admission of €16 at www.vatican.va. Or you can do it online via one of our partners:
Book a Vatican tour: There are two-hour tours of the museums and Sistine Chapel available (in English usually four time a day) for €32 per person—3-hour tours that also include St. Pater's cost €37. Note, though, that those prices include the €16 admisison ticket and €4 booking fee, so the tour portion actually only costs an extra €12–€15. For more info: tel. +39-06-6988-3145 or www.vatican.va. If you prefer a private guided tour of the Vatican and its museums, book one via our partner sites Viator.com or Context Travel:
The Vatican Museums reopen Fridays evenings in summer

The Vatican has been experimenting with spring-to-fall evening hours on Fridays, allowing a limited number of visitors—upon advance booking only—to wander the mooonlit galleries without the crowds.

Dates (2103):
• May 3–July 16
• Sept 6–Oct 25

Hours: 7am to 11pm on Fridays (last entry: 9:30pm).

Cost: €16 (+€4 booking fee)

Galleries open on Friday nights:
• Sistine Chapel
• Raphael Rooms
• Pio-Clementine Museum
• Egyptian Museum
• B orgia Apartments (some rooms)
• Museum of Modern Reglious Art

More info: www.vatican.va.
To book: Viator.com The Vatican Museums are closed Sundays—except on the last Sunday of the month...
The Vatican Museums are free on the last Sunday of each month, when they are intensely crowded and stay open until 2pm (last entry: 12:30pm). They're also free on Sept. 27 (World Tourism Day). If the Sunday falls on a church holiday, however, they're closed (see next tip).
The Vatican Museums are closed on all church holidays: Jan. 1, Jan. 6, Feb. 11, Mar. 19, Easter Sunday and Monday, May 1, June 29 (Feast of St. Peter and Paul—major Roman holiday), Aug. 14–15 (everything is closed in Rome on Aug. 15; head to Santa Maria Maggiore for mass with a "snowfall" of rose petals), Nov. 1, Dec. 25 (Merry Christmas!), and Dec. 26 (Santo Stefano—huge in Italy).
Note that the Vatican Museums close surprisingly early (last entry at 4pm, doors close 6pm). So see them first, then walk around the walls to visit St. Peter's.
Dress code?: Recently, the Vatican (or at least some guards) seems to have decided that you must dress "appropriately" to visit any part of Vatican City—including the museums—and not just St. Peter's, where a dress code has long applied. Err on the side of caution and make sure you arrive with no bare shoulders, knees or midriffs. (If it's hot and you want to wear a tank top around town that day, just bring a light shawl to cover your shoulders while inside; on packing the right items for an Italy trip.)
How to get to the Vatican Museums: Cipro-Musei Vaticani is the closest Metro stop (on the A line, about 5 blocks northwest of the entrance; just follow the crowds). Otherwise, bus 49 stops right in front of the museum entrance (you can catch it from Piazza Cavour, or anywhere along Via Cescenzio, which passes the very northern tip of the piazza around Castel Sant'Angelo). You can also take one of many lines to Piazza del Risorgimento, tucked into a inside corner of the Vatican walls a short walk east of the musuems entrance: 23, 32, 81, 271, 492, 590, 982, 990.

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This material was last updated May 2013. All information was accurate at the time.

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Pio Cristiano Museum

The Vatican's Pio Christian Museum contains some of the oldest Christian art in the world, some dating back to within 150 years of Christ's death

Tips

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