Vatican Museums are celebrating the 500th anniversary of their existence this year

VATICAN - The Vatican is preparing a number of exhibitions, conferences, and guided tours this year to showcase the extensive cultural and artistic wealth of the collections gathered in the Vatican museums. This year marks the 500th anniversary of their existence, making them one of the oldest cultural institutions of their kind in the world. They are also among the most visited, writes the AP agency.
The foundation of the Vatican collections was laid by Pope Julius II, who in 1506 purchased the marble statue of the Trojan priest Laocoön, unearthed shortly before near the Roman Colosseum.
Thanks to contributions from other popes, the collections grew significantly in the following centuries. Visitors can now encounter their artistic treasures not only in the Vatican itself but also in other places in the Italian capital and its surroundings.
A highlight of this year's museum season will be the opening of the necropolis, discovered by archaeologists in 2003 just outside the walls of the Vatican while constructing a new parking lot.
The site, covering an area of 500 square meters, includes thirty burial chambers and also 60 graves and altars dated to the first century BC.
Another event of this anniversary year will be the reopening of two renovated institutions - the Museum of Christianity and the Missionary Ethnological Museum. The mysterious room of the Borgia wing of the Apostolic Palace will also be opened after restoration.
The Vatican museums cannot truly complain about public indifference to their collections, as over four million people visit the exhibitions each year. Visitors also show equally relentless interest in other Vatican attractions, such as Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel, Raphael's Rooms, and the Borgia Tower. The unmatched exhibits of the Egyptian and Etruscan collections, as well as the collection of Renaissance painting, are also very attractive.