Must Know Places of the World
The Must Know Places of the World: Europe: Vatican City
General Information
St. Peters Bascilica
The Sistene Chapel
The Vatican Museums
General Information
Vatican City is the smallest country in the world. It is just about one square mile in size, and has only one permanent resident: the pope.
St. Peters Bascilica
St. Peters Bascilica is the largest cathedral in the world. It also has the largest stone dome in the world. The dome, the most famous in the world, was designed by Michelangelo Bournarroti and is the most copied dome in the world (St. Pauls (London, Great Britain), the Marble Cathedral (Copenhagen, Denmark), and the United States Capital Building (Washington D.C., United States) are all copies of the dome.).
Inside of the Bascilica are many famous objects. Michelangelo Bournarroti's Pieta stands in one corner. The most famous of all pieta's ever sculpted, it gained him instant fame. It was attacked with a sledge hammer sometime during either the 1980's or 1990's, but has been fully restored.
The Sistene Chapel
The most famous fresco in the history of the world adorns the ceiling of the most famous chapel in the world. For four years, Michelangelo Bournarroti labored arduously on his back to paint the ceiling. On the ceiling are paintings of the Creation of Adam, the Creation of Eve, Explustion from the Garden of Eden, Seperating Light and Darkness. Along the edges are other famous frescoes all done by Michelangelo. It is probably the best painting ever done, and most people would tend to agree with that.
On the one end of the chapel stands The Last Judgement, also done by Michelangelo Bournarroti. Commissionned after the chapel ceiling, Michelangelo depicts the return of Christ on Judgement Day.
The Vatican Museums
The Vatican Museums hold some of the worlds greatest art treasures.
The School of Athens is one of the greatest paintings of all time. Painted by Raphael Sanzio at the age of 27, he depicted all of the great thinkers of all time. Positively identified in the painting are Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Pythagoras, Euclid, Alcibiades, Diogenes, Ptolemy, Zoroaster and Raphael. Just recently restored in the mid 1990's.