The Sistine Chapel is one of the chapels of the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican City State, where the pope's official residence is located. Originally it worked like the chapel of the Vatican Fort and was known as Cappella Magna. Its name comes from Pope Sixtus IV who ordered its restoration between 1473 and 1481.
Thanks and credit to Google Earth Studio for this aerial video.
Thanks and credit to Google Earth Studio for this aerial video.
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00:00The Sistine Chapel is a chapel in the Apostolic Palace, the Pope's official residence in Vatican
00:15City.
00:16Originally known as the Capella Magna, Great Chapel, it takes its name from Pope Sixtus
00:20IV, who had it built between 1473 and 1481.
00:26Since that time, it has served as a place of both religious and functionary papal activity.
00:31Today, it is the site of the Papal Conclave, the process by which a new pope is selected.
00:37The chapel's fame lies mainly in the frescoes that decorate its interior, most particularly
00:42the Sistine Chapel ceiling and the Last Judgment, both by Michelangelo.
00:47During the reign of Sixtus IV, a team of Renaissance painters including Sandro Botticelli, Pietro
00:52Perugino, Pinchariccio, Domenico Ghirlandaio and Cosimo Rosselli, created a series of frescoes
01:00depicting the life of Moses and the life of Christ, offset by papal portraits above and
01:04trompe-l'oeil drapery below.
01:07They were completed in 1482, and on 15 August 1483, Sixtus IV celebrated the First Mass
01:14in the Sistine Chapel for the Feast of the Assumption, during which the chapel was consecrated
01:19and dedicated to the Virgin Mary.
01:22Between 1508 and 1512, under the patronage of Pope Julius II, Michelangelo painted the
01:28chapel's ceiling, a project that changed the course of Western art and is regarded as one
01:33of the major artistic accomplishments of human civilization.
01:37In a different political climate, after the sack of Rome, he returned and, between 1535
01:43and 1541, painted the Last Judgment for Popes Clement VII and Paul III.
01:48The fame of Michelangelo's paintings has drawn multitudes of visitors to the chapel
01:52since they were revealed five centuries ago.
01:55While known as the location of papal conclaves, the primary function of the Sistine Chapel
02:00is as the chapel of the Papal Chapel, Capella Pontificia, one of the two bodies of the papal
02:06household.
02:07Called until 1968 the Papal Court, Pontificallis Aula, at the time of Pope Sixtus IV in the
02:13late 15th century, the Papal Chapel comprised about 200 people, including clerics, officials
02:19of the Vatican, and distinguished laity.
02:23There were 50 occasions during the year on which it was prescribed by the papal calendar
02:27that the whole papal chapel should meet.
02:29Of these 50 occasions, 35 were masses, of which eight were held in basilicas, in General
02:35St. Peter's, and were attended by large congregations.
02:39These included the Christmas Day and Easter Masses, at which the Pope himself was the
02:43celebrant.
02:44The other 27 masses could be held in a smaller, less public space, for which the Capella Maggiore
02:50was used before it was rebuilt on the same site as the Sistine Chapel.
02:54The Sistine Chapel as it may have appeared in the 15th-century, 19th-century drawing.
03:00The present chapel, on the site of the Capella Maggiore, was designed by Boccia Pontelli for
03:04Pope Sixtus IV.
03:07for whom it is named, and built under the supervision of Giovannino de' Dolci between
03:111473 and 1481.
03:14The proportions of the present chapel appear to closely follow those of the original.
03:19After its completion, the chapel was decorated with frescoes by a number of the most famous
03:24artists of the High Renaissance, including Sandro Botticelli, Domenico Garlandio, Pietro
03:29Perugino, and Michelangelo.
03:32The first Mass in the Sistine Chapel was celebrated on 15 August 1483, the Feast of the Assumption,
03:39at which ceremony the chapel was consecrated and dedicated to the Virgin Mary.
03:44Papal Conclave Main Article.
03:46Papal Conclave One of the functions of the Sistine Chapel is as a venue for the election
03:50of each successive Pope in a conclave of the College of Cardinals.
03:54The first papal conclave to be held in the Sistine Chapel was the Conclave of 1492, which
04:00took place from 6 to 11 August of the same year and in which Pope Alexander VI, also
04:05known as Rodrigo Borja, was elected.
04:09That is all.
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