Chiaramonti Museum

The Chiaramonti Museum, inside the Vatican Museums, is named after Pope Pius VII (born Barnaba Chiaramonti) who founded it in the nineteenth century.

It houses about a thousand sculptures, including simulacra of deities and portraits of emperors, statues and Roman busts. It was set up by the sculptor Antonio Canova in 1807. The new part of the building, the Braccio Nuovo, was inaugurated in 1822 and there are famous Roman statues.

Another part of the Museum, the lapidary gallery, contains more than 3,000 tablets and stone inscriptions and is open to visitors only on request. This gallery is very important for the study of the Roman and Christian world.

Among the main works of the Chiaramonti Museum are the statue of Augustus found at Prima Porta, two splendid peacocks in gilded bronze, a Roman copy of the Doriforo, the statue of the Nile depicting the great Egyptian river with its tributaries.