Artworks in the Vatican Archives

Coat of Arms of Cardinal Scipione Borghese, librarian of the Holy Roman Church (1609-1618), with the crowned eagle and the winged dragon. (A virtual tour of the Archives amid frescoes and documents, Vatican Secret Archives webwsite.)

Paul V Borghese chose three rooms called the "Paoline" rooms to be the site of the official Archives collection. This area was located next to the Sistine Hall and used to be the rooms of the Librarian Cardinals. It took about four to five years to arrange for all the documents to be transferred to this new location.

The rooms were cleaned up and the walls were covered in frescoes depicting gestures of donations from European Sovereigns to the Vatican State.




A virtual tour of the Archives amid frescoes and documents This webpage allows you to look at the frescoes which are located in the rooms containing the secret Archives. It is quite an interesting site if you are interested in Art. The webpage allows you to choose either the first, second or third room and which artworks you want to view. As well as the three halls which contain the most important archives there are study rooms, store rooms and the Tower of Winds, which was constructed between 1578 and 1580 for the puropose of conducting astronomy studies. This website gives you the option to do a virtual tour of these rooms.


Views of first room - located in the Piano Nobile.




Below are two images located in the first room.