Chiaramonti Museum

The Chiaramonti Museum, within 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. It was built in 1807 by sculptor Antonio Canova. The new part of the building, the Braccio Nuovo, was inaugurated in 1822 and contains famous Roman statues.

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

Among the most important works in the Chiaramonti Museum are the statue of Augustus found in Prima Porta, two splendid peacocks in gilded bronze, a Roman copy of the Doryphoros, the statue of the Nile representing the great Egyptian river with its tributaries.