Lentorama 2026: Hic es: aedificia Vaticani

Day 12: Museo Pio-Cristiano

Founded two years after the establishment of the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology, Pope Pius IX founded this museum in 1854 as a place to house excavated items that could not be conserved where found (though a number of items already in Vatican or Roman collections found their way here).

The museum has two halves, one dedicated to monuments, sculptures, and mosaics, the other to inscriptions. The former is open to the public, and apparently has a good collection of sarcophagi. The latter half is for academics only.

Originally housed in the Lateran Palace, the museum was moved to a new building in 1963.