Vatican Museums, Monuments, and Galleries

Direzione Generale
Viale del Vaticano
00120 Città del Vaticano
tel: +39/06/69884587
fax: +39/06/69885100
Opening hours: Monday – Saturday 8:45-16:45 (13:45 from November through March); last Sunday of each month
Admission to the Pio Cristiano collection is by reservation only: apply to the ufficio dei permessi to arrange a time to visit the collection.
tel: +39/06/69884947
fax: +39/06/69881573

Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana
00120 Città del Vaticano
tel: +39/06/69879403
fax: +39/06/69884795
vaticanlibrary@librs6k.vatlib.it
Library opening hours: 9-17 Monday-Friday

There are several notable Christian and Jewish collections of art and inscriptions in the Vatican Museums. The Pio Cristiano collection (formerly the Lateran collection) established by Pius IX contains Christian sarcophagi and epitaphs found during excavations in the catacombs and ancient churches in Rome; annexed to this collection is a small exhibit of Jewish epitaphs and funerary artifacts primarily from the Monteverde catacomb and the column capitols decorated with incised menorahs found at the site of the xenodochium at Portus.

The Museo Sacro of the Vatican Library displays artifacts from the catacombs in Rome and churches, including fragments of gold glass vessels and terra-cotta oil lamps with Christian and Jewish symbols. There are also other glass vials and bases, Christian medallions and pilgrims’ tokens, ancient and medieval reliquaries, small wax icons of the apostles Peter and Paul and ancient textiles.

The Chiaramonti Collection organized by Antonio Canova for Pope Pius VI has a large number of Roman pagan funerary cippi and sarcophagi, many with interesting inscriptions from the Ist through Vth centuries A.D.