Tourist Attractions & Monuments Rome

This wing was built under Pius VII and inaugurated in 1817. It houses Roman statues and mosaics, some of which are copies of Greek statues. In the alcove we will seethestatue of the Nile. The river is depicted as a mature and bearded man, surrounded by crocodiles and sixteen naked children who symbolize the bends that the Nile must reach to flood agricultural land. This statue was found in Rome in 1513. Opposite, two gilded bronze peacocks come from Hadrian's villa in Tivoli. Their copy surrounds the Pigne, in the courtyard.

The Candelabra Gallery was refurbished under Pius VI. Its 80 m length is divided into 6 arcades where antiquities from the classical Roman period to the 2nd century are displayed. Under the pilasters rise marble candelabra. We will also look at the ceilings and glasses of the six bays designed by Domenico Torti and Ludwig Seitz under Leo XIII. Notice among all the statues, the curious one of the Artemis Ephesus: covered with what looks like breasts (and which in reality are bull's testicles), it symbolizes fertility.

Gallery of Saint Pius V. This little gallery exhibits tapestries. Admire the ceilings decorated with representations of the Evangelists and Doctors of the Church, painted by Giorgio Vasari and Jacopo Zucchi.

Sobieski Hall. This room, which is part of the apartments of Pius V, takes its name from the painting that decorates the main wall, by the Polish painter Jan Matejko (1883). It shows John III Sobieski, King of Poland, defeating the Turks against the ramparts of Vienna, which was besieged in 1683.