Vatican City is an enclave within Italy in the urban fabric of the city of Rome. Elective absolute Patrimonial Monarchy reigns in the State headed by the Pope of the Catholic Church. The official language is Italian, while Latin is the official language of the Holy See. The State of the Church, which for nearly a millennium had spread over much of central Italy, forming the base territory of the temporal power of the popes, was fully annexed to the Kingdom of Italy in 1870, when the Bersaglieri sharpshooters (on September 20th) penetrated Rome by the Breach of Porta Pia, solely refraining from military occupation of the Borgo district, the place where our building now stands.
the Sistine Chapel, dedicated to the Virgin Mary (Our Lady of the Assumption), is one of the most famous cultural and artistic treasures of Vatican City, nestled in the route of the Vatican Museums. It was built between 1475 and 1481, at the time of Pope Sixtus IV Della Rovere, and named after the latter.
It is known throughout the world both as the place where the conclave and other official ceremonies of the Pope are held (in the past, also some papal coronations), and because it is decorated with one of the most famous and celebrated of Western cultural works of art, the frescoes of Michelangelo Buonarroti, which cover the vault (1508-1512) and the back wall (the Last Judgement) above the altar (1535-1541).
it is perhaps considered the most complete and important "visual theology" that has been called Biblia pauperum". The walls also showcase a series of frescoes by some of the greatest Italian artists of the second half of the Fifteenth Century (Sandro Botticelli, Pietro Perugino, Pinturicchio, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Luca Signorelli, Piero di Cosimo and others).