Discover Apostolic Palace

The Apostolic Palace is older than the tower built to defend it. When Nicholas V — Tommaso Parentucelli, pope from 1447 to 1455 — ordered his private chapel built, he put it in the last two floors of a thirteenth-century tower that had itself been raised to protect a palace nucleus that already existed. Whatever the palace is, it was there before the fortification was.

The Vatican's own page is not sure which pope built that tower. It names Innocent III, pope from 1198 to 1216, and then in the same sentence glosses him as the fourth pontiff of that name, giving 1243 to 1254. We repeat the uncertainty rather than resolve it.

The palace became a residence by a specific choice. Julius II della Rovere, pope from 1503 to 1513, chose the apartment on the second floor of the Papal Palace as his own, and his successors used it too. Four of its rooms are the ones now called Raphael's, painted by Raphael and his pupils between 1508 and 1524.

You can go inside, because the best rooms are museum collections. The Niccoline Chapel stands in the heart of the Apostolic Palace, a short step from the Loggias of Raphael and from the spaces where the Apartment of Julius II and Leo X later developed. Its decoration is assigned by two payments of February and March 1448 to the Dominican Fra Giovanni da Fiesole, Beato Angelico, and the Vatican calls it one of the capital works of the Italian fifteenth century.

Hours are the Vatican Museums' hours: Monday to Saturday 8.00–20.00, last entry 18.00; and every last Sunday of the month 9.00–14.00, last entry 12.30, with free admission.

Buy only from the Vatican. The Museums themselves warn against sites using domains similar to the official one, which may apply notably inflated prices.

The reigning pope is Leo XIV. Pope Francis, who reigned from 2013 to 2025, chose to live in the Santa Marta residence rather than the palace apartment.

The palace is not composed, it is accumulated around a core nobody designed. The clearest evidence is the Niccoline Chapel: it occupies the last two floors of a thirteenth-century tower that was itself built to protect a palace nucleus that already existed. A tower is a response to something, and the something was already here.

So the grandest rooms are retrofits into defensive stone. Nicholas V did not build a chapel and then a tower round it; he put a chapel inside a tower, which is why the space is small, tall and square rather than basilican.

The residential logic is horizontal and specific to one floor. The apartment Julius II chose was on the second floor, and the four rooms now called Raphael's were part of it — a sequence of linked chambers, which is what a Renaissance apartment is, rather than a suite of galleries.

The chapel's decoration is organised by where the doors go. The frescoes begin on the wall to the right of the altar, towards the pope's chambers, run in two superimposed registers around the entire perimeter, and conclude on the opposite wall, towards the room where the Lansquenet Guard was based. The programme is laid out along the path between the pope and his guard.

And the vault is a diagram of authority. Divided into four webs by the ribs, it is dominated by the Four Evangelists, whose authority is symbolically transmitted to the eight Doctors of the Church set in niches on the arches framing the walls.

Everything princely clusters round the old tower. The chapel sits a short step from the Loggias of Raphael and from the spaces in which the Apartment of Julius II and Leo X would later develop.

It was built outward and upward from something already standing. The only firm statement the Vatican makes about the earliest fabric is indirect and all the more useful for it: a thirteenth-century tower was raised to protect a pre-existing palace nucleus. The sequence is nucleus first, defences second.

Conversion, not demolition, is the method. Nicholas V (1447–1455) made his chapel by occupying the last two floors of that tower. The medieval structure was kept and repurposed, which is why the chapel's dimensions are a tower's dimensions.

Decoration was commissioned and paid for in instalments that still survive. Two payments of February and March 1448 assign the chapel's decoration to Beato Angelico — the building's chronology is anchored in account books, not attribution.

The residence was made by choosing, not constructing. Julius II chose the second-floor apartment as his own, and it was then used by his successors. The palace became the papal residence because a pope moved into a floor of it.

And the painting of it took sixteen years and more than one hand. Raphael and his pupils decorated the four rooms between 1508 and 1524 — a span that outlasts Julius II himself, which is why the rooms do not read as a single campaign.

Can I visit the Apostolic Palace? Parts of it, as Vatican Museums collections — the Raphael Rooms, the Niccoline Chapel, the Borgia Apartment and the Sistine Chapel are inside it. There is no separate palace ticket.

What are the hours? Monday to Saturday 8.00–20.00, last entry 18.00; and every last Sunday of the month 9.00–14.00, last entry 12.30.

Is it ever free? Yes — every last Sunday of the month, with free admission. That day closes at 14.00.

Where should I buy tickets? Through the official Vatican Museums portal. The Museums warn about sites using domains similar to the official one which may apply notably inflated prices.

Who painted the Raphael Rooms, and when? Raphael and his pupils, between 1508 and 1524. The four rooms were part of the apartment on the second floor chosen by Julius II della Rovere (pope 1503–1513) as his own residence.

What is the Niccoline Chapel? A chapel in the heart of the Apostolic Palace, ordered by Nicholas V (1447–1455) in the last two floors of a thirteenth-century tower. Its decoration is assigned by two payments of February–March 1448 to Beato Angelico, and the Vatican calls it one of the capital works of the Italian fifteenth century.

How old is the palace? Older than its own defences. The thirteenth-century tower was built to protect a palace nucleus that already existed — so there was a palace here before that tower went up. The Vatican's page attributes the tower both to Innocent III (1198–1216) and, in the same sentence, to the fourth pope of that name (1243–1254); we repeat the uncertainty rather than pick one.

How many rooms does it have? We do not say. Earlier versions of this page gave 55,000 square metres, about 1,400 rooms and "the largest fully-inhabited palace in the world". The Holy See publishes none of those figures anywhere we can reach, so they have been removed.

Does the pope live there? The apartment on show is the Renaissance one. Leo XIV is the reigning pope; Pope Francis, who reigned from 2013 to 2025, chose to live in the Santa Marta residence rather than the palace apartment.

Who is the Borgia Apartment named after? Rodrigo de Borja y Doms, italianised as Borgia, elected pope on the death of Innocent VIII, taking the name Alexander VI.