Pio Clementino Museum

The Pio-Clementino Museum is the largest complex of the Vatican Museums and owes its name to its founders: Pope Clement XIV who in 1771 acquired the Mattei and Fusconi collections and Pope Pius VI who enlarged it giving it a monumental entrance with the Atrium of the Four Gates and the Scala Simonetti.

It houses in 12 rooms the most important Greek and Roman masterpieces. The museum also includes the Cortile Ottagono, once called the Courtyard of the statues, where the first true collection of classical sculptures belonged to the Vatican was housed. Among the main sculptures are the statue of Laocoön and the Apollo of the Belvedere.

The main rooms are the one of the statues with the walls frescoed by Pinturicchio, the hall of busts that houses the busts of the Roman emperors, the Round Room with the imposing gilded bronze statue of Hercules, the Greek cross room decorated with a central mosaic and two huge sarcophagi and the animal room.

La Scala Simonetti connects you to the Gregorian Egyptian Museum.