These are long corridors with many exhibits, from Egyptian and Roman artifacts to Renaissance and modern paintings. Most notable are the Borgia Apartments with walls and vaults covered in paintings, rooms decorated by Raphael and the Sistine Chapel with murals by Leonardo and Botticelli.
Next to the visited by thousands of people Sistine Chapel in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican, is the Sala Regina. The doors between the two beautifully decorated rooms are locked. The state hall, which was originally used to receive members of the royal families, is not open to the public. The Sistine Chapel contains biblical scenes, while the Sala Regina is decorated with frescoes depicting turning points in the history of the Catholic Church. In 1572, just after news of the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre, Pope Gregory XIII was so pleased that he commissioned Giorgio Vasari to paint three frescoes documenting the event. Three panels in the Sala Regina glorify the slaughter of the Huguenots in Paris, where 3,000 French Protestants were murdered, regardless of gender or age. In one night in Paris, historians have calculated that Christians killed as many Christians as the pagan Romans did during the persecution of Christians that lasted three centuries.
The impressive spiral staircase designed by Giuseppe Momo in 1932 is perhaps the most famous staircase in the world. The traditional spiral staircase has little to do with those in the Vatican Museums. The Bramante Staircase contain two independent stairways that form a double helix. Having two stairways allows people to climb without encountering people going down at the same time.
