The 552-Year-Old Sistine Chapel Has the WILDEST Design Details You've Ever Seen

The 552-Year-Old Sistine Chapel Has the WILDEST Design Details You've Ever Seen

As the conclave to pick the new pope approaches, here are eight design details you didn't know about the Sistine Chapel, where the voting takes place

Today, the conclave to elect a new pope begins – in the famous Sistine Chapel in Rome, amidst Michelangelo's frescoes. Reason enough to take another closer look at the art in this special polling station.

Which ceremony can boast such a strong and long tradition as the conclave? The first time a pope was elected in this way was back in the days when Přemysl Otakar II ruled Bohemia, and the Vatican will begin its search for a new pontiff in practically the same way today, for the seventy-sixth time. During their college, the group of cardinals will remain cut off from the world behind the walls of the Sistine Chapel of the Apostolic Palace until w…

The 133 cardinal electors who will meet this Wednesday at the Conclave to elect the New Pope will vote, as is traditional, in front of the fresco painted by Miguel &A

Special Envoy to Rome Vatican City. — Once the adjustments to the Sistine Chapel were completed for the conclave of this spring of 2025, the director of Vatican museums, Barbara Jatta, presented this Renaissance jewel and spiritual symbol of Christianity to the cardinals gathered on the eve of the ‘Extra omnes‘ with which they will begin voting for the next Supreme Pontiff. The Sistine Chapel, as is known, prepares to host one of the most solemn…

The Sistine Chapel: A look back at the most iconic site of the conclave

On May 7, the cardinal electors"those under the age of 80"will enter the conclave to choose the next pope. Since 1878, every conclave has taken place in the Sistine Chapel at the heart of the Vatican, a setting deeply intertwined with the papacy.