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As many are aware, the Vatican is a very beautiful travel destination. It has many great cultural sites that can probably captivate anyone with their beauty, like the famous Sistine Chapel, for example.
Yet, the Vatican has even more to offer in terms of precious artifacts than some might realize. So, to educate people on such matters, X account @Culture Critic posted a thread where they and other accounts shared many interesting treasures that are hidden within Vatican walls, which turned out to be an educational and visually captivating scroll through social media.
More info: X
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Foxglove🇮🇪 1 year ago
Not so incredible if it's been locked away in the Vatican since 400AD!
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Richard Wareham 1 year ago
A great deal of the Vatican's treasures are not available to the general public. Locked away and hidden as is the Catholic Churches vast wealth. Just imagine how much suffering in the world could be relieved if they just spread the wealth.
Lee Henderson 1 year ago
Porphyry is an igneous rock similar in composition to granite. Unlike common granites, pophyry has large, light-colored crystals of quartz or feldspar floating in a red or purple fine-grained matrix of smaller crystals.
Couragetcd 1 year ago
Um, please fix what I really, really hope is a typo and change kids to kinda?
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Jason Boyd 1 year ago
Yeah, most of the porphyry is locked away but you can see two pillars in the forum that are worth about $20 million each. Temple of Romulus if I remember right: https://passportsandpigtails.com/2016/05/30/pillars-power-and-performances-romes-colosseum-area/
jamesmcwhirty 1 year ago
it is such a shame it isn't owned by an institution that would sell it and use the money to benefit the poor and the needy.....
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#2
RabidChild 1 year ago
Well, of course. Didn't the church appropriate most everything - traditions, holidays, celebrations, mythology - from the pagans?
Alexandra 1 year ago
The Catholics had the mildly annoying habit of building their churches on top of temples of religions they did not approve of.
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Patricia Smith 1 year ago
The Catholic did appropriate pagan temples, places and holidays to stop pagan worship but to also show its superiority and gain followers.
ERMAHGERD DINOSAURS 1 year ago
The Vatican Catacombs was one of the best days of my life. I’m not even religious, but that’s how amazing it is.
Paul Gerrard 1 year ago (edited)
The tour of the "scavi" (excavations) is very limited. We visited in 2019 and it is amazing to walk the paths inside an ancient cemetary including graffiti. Its All there and you pass through layers of history under the plaza and vatican.
Rowan Kohler 1 year ago
Likely the Etruscan’s. Vatican Hill was a holy place to them before they were replaced by Romans the new Etruscan culture and removed the then harsh monarchy of Etruria. Vatica was thought an older god or such with the site is named.
#3
Ash 1 year ago
Gorgeous. And wouldn't be as awesome without that deftly-placed stream of sunlight...
dan gerene 1 year ago
There is actually a cherub up in the corner holding a Blessed Tactical Flashlight. $39.99 at the Vatican Gift Shop. Forever Ready batteries extra.
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Couragetcd 1 year ago
At least this one makes sense to be at the Vatican. Nice there is one on here that doesn't remind me of the British Museum
Marie Lane 1 year ago
And there are many more gorgeous Bernini sculptures at the Galleria Borghese…
The Vatican (also called Vatican City or the Vatican City State) is the smallest state in the world, both by area and population. But that isn’t the only thing that makes it special. It is also a state that is ruled by the Pope, who is the bishop of Rome and head of the Catholic Church. Or in other words, it is ruled by The Holy See.
It became independent from Italy in 1929 with the Lateran Treaty. The name for the state derived from an Etruscan settlement, Vatica or Vaticum, which was located in the area the Romans called Ager Vaticanus – "Vatican territory." Yet, since the state doesn’t have its own language, its legislation and official communications use Italian.
Despite being the smallest state in the world, the Vatican has its own football team. The team is made up of employees of the Vatican, like police officers, postal workers, and even the members of the Pontifical Swiss Guard, which is kind of like the state's army, and it protects the Pope.
#4
Nimitz 1 year ago
The Papal archives contain, essentially, the entire known remaining history of our species, and they're not shared because much of it doesn't align with the bible. They stole our stories and our truth
der sebbl 1 year ago
European history. And i highly doubt that. If there was some 'forbidden truth' it would be more likely to been destroyed than to be stored.
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ERMAHGERD DINOSAURS 1 year ago
I started to say there’s no way anyone wouldn’t know that. Then….ya….
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Avoidance_Panda 1 year ago
I hope they are backing this up in digital form, the loss of this would just be to great...
TheAmericanAmerican 1 year ago
Probably around 10% of the archives' knowledge is public knowledge... it's a crime against humanity that it remains sealed off to us!
der sebbl 1 year ago
Ost of the stuff is probably very boring administrative stuff
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#5
Mya Lugar 1 year ago
No wonder they had no worries about walking around naked or near so...no big deal as it turns out!!
Ash 1 year ago (edited)
on a side note, the ancient greeks felt that small penises were a sign of fertility. The ancient Romans might have been more positive towards large penises, but their sculptures continue the trend of small penises. So it didn't matter if your package was small!
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Nickie LaRue 1 year ago
This is why you don't let people take pictures of you naked.. you never know where it'll end up. That naked selfie you send could be preserved as art in 2000 yrs
Dumb teenager 1 year ago
*gasp* BORED PANDA WHAT HAVE YOU DONE??!! MY INNOCENCE WILL NEVER RECOVER FROM THIS GROSS LACK OF CENSORSHIP!!!
Nikolaj Christensen 1 year ago
The one in the lower left corner will give you an offer you cannot refuse!
#6
1 year ago
A madman attacked the sculpture with a hammer, causing not insignificant damage. It was afterward displayed in a side chapel with an iron gate across it, keeping vandals at bay. I haven't been to the Vatican lately, but I hope it's now being shown the way it is in this photo: where people can enjoy it
Rebekah 1 year ago
I was there last month. It's behind glass (or something strong that appears to be glass) now.
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Pyla 1 year ago (edited)
read up on how he positioned the body so that a small woman could hold a grown man. Bernini, greatness incarnate. Correcting for Michelangelo.
Lorraine R 1 year ago
The Vatican sent it to New York City for display at the 1964-65 World's Fair. To see it, you would step onto a slowly moving walkway which carried you past the sculpture, which I believe was behind a shield of some kind.
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the sixthgirl 1 year ago
I read once that the toes of Mary were worn down slightly over time due to people kissing them.
chrnh@metrocast.net 1 year ago
I saw Michelangelo's Pieta at the Montreal Expo years ago. It was the most beautiful thing I have EVER seen. I think I went through the line 5 times.
Katie not Middleton 1 year ago
“Normality is a paved road; it’s comfortable to walk but no flowers grow” Vincent Van Gogh
marianne eliza 1 year ago
I have a problem with the Pieta. Compare Mary's size and width, especially the legs, with Jesus' size, length and width. Not quite right, relatively. Sorry. It's something that bugs me every time I see it.
Ash 1 year ago
lol It's true, but it was also done on purpose so the sculptor could put them in that physical position, and thus indicate a particular relationship between them (Mary as the Holy Mother who can cradle the afflicted).
Load More Replies...Interestingly, the Vatican is also the country that has the highest wine consumption rate per capita in the world, as an average resident consumes 54.26 or 74 (depending on the information source) liters of wine every year. Well, with all of the masses in the country ruled by the head of the Catholic Church, it isn’t such a big surprise, is it?
On the other hand, back in the first century, a poet named Martial declared that the area around the Vatican produced some of the worst wines. We guess that they must have improved their wine recipes to become the state that consumes this drink the most since then.
Another intriguing thing about the Vatican is that it contains a lot of religious and cultural sites, architecture, and artifacts. In fact, the Vatican is the only state that is in its entirety in UNESCO's List of World Heritage Sites.
#7
Virgil Blue 1 year ago
These can actually be a bit out of the way ofvthevstandard tour when you visit, so be sure to seek them out.
#8
Kaedyn Walsh 1 year ago
What blows my mind is you can tell the artist put more than just time into this. The DETAIL is astounding. Like the toes of all the men... The right guy, the artist even sculpted his wonky little toe on the foot closest to the giant. And the bends in the giants toes. Yeah I'm going over every tiniest bit of this sculpture and it's like these people had a thin liquid brushed over their entire bodies to render them 'paralyzed' and they were left forever in these positions.
Lorraine R 1 year ago
The Laocoon (last "o" should have a tilde but I don't know how to do that, so, "Lay-AH-co-onn). He was a priest of some god or other and was punished for something he did by being strangled to death along with his two young sons.
Load More Replies... AtMostAFabulist 1 year ago
It looks like there is a tongue sticking out between the legs of the middle guy.
Tropical Tarot 1 year ago
Those are the testicles and testicles will probably get censored just for being testicles.
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Yayheterogeneity 1 year ago
My parents took me to see it when I was around 14 years old. I was interested in anything but not something hewn from marble. But this sculpture hit me hard. It was so divine. The snake, the bodies, the agony. I'll never forget it.
#9
For example, one of the best-known cultural sites in the Vatican is St. Peter's Basilica, under which one of the first leaders of the Catholic church, St. Peter himself, is buried. Some scholars suggest that he was crucified at the very same site, and to commemorate Emperor Constantine I, he decided to build a church.
Also, a very famous Vatican cultural site is the Sistine Chapel, and its ceiling, which took 4 years for Michelangelo to paint, is deemed one of the major artistic accomplishments of human civilization.
Besides these and some other famous cultural sites, within its walls, the Vatican holds many valuable treasures. Many examples can be seen in today’s list. For example, one of the rarest documents in history -- a papal letter of Martin Luther’s excommunication. It also holds Emperor Nero's 2000-year-old bathtub and other stuff that, in a way, can be viewed as artifacts that mark humanity’s rollercoaster of history.
So, take a look at these artifacts, and don’t forget to upvote the ones that you found the most captivating!
#10
David 1 year ago
you mean translated greek. Old was written in Hebrew and Aramiac, greek is a translation, not the original
Ash 1 year ago
Correct. But New Testament was originally written in Greek. As for the "original Greek" Old Testament, they're probably referring to the Septuagint, translated from Hebrew into Greek by Egyptian Jews in the 200s BCE and in wide use in ancient times.
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Patricia Smith 1 year ago
I think that the Priesthood went through periods of celibacy throughout its' history. Why the church decided on a period of time for priests to forever be celibate has more to do with church property and the priest's children, I believe. Even today if an Episcopal priest decides to become a Roman Catholic priest he may do so even if he has a family.
#11
V H 1 year ago
Isn't the interpretation already widely available in the Bible?
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Tropical Tarot 1 year ago
I think its demotic. Sort of a midway language between hieroglyphics and more modern alphabets.
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roddy 1 year ago
it would be interesting to compare the wording of these early versions to the versions we are familiar with today.
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ERMAHGERD DINOSAURS 1 year ago
Yup! If I recall my catacombs tour correctly, his body got moved. If you’re touring, you can look at the original grave markings with low infrared light, but there’s a visible hallway reserved just for Cardinals that is where is remains are permanently. Don’t have to be religious to be blown away by the historical significance. Vatican City is literally centuries of layers building up right over St. Peter’s tomb. The original Vatican hill is very much visible. Really cool! I love art history & ancient history so I was giddy.
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Paul Gerrard 1 year ago (edited)
Yes. Remains of StbPeter. The original chapel with his remains had a basilica constructed on it and that had the present basilica built on it. It is visible on the very limited scavi tour that must be pre booked months ahead. http://www.scavi.va/content/scavi/it.html It is a incredible tour. Strict rules !!
Jen Hart 1 year ago
Yeah, looks like quite a few people carved into the pic on the right 🧐
Load More Replies... Nimitz 1 year ago
The greatest perpetrator of fraud in human history? The guy more responsible for spreading hatred and fear and death than anyone who ever lived? F**k that guy!
Kelly H. Wilder 1 year ago
Arguably, Paul is more responsible for modern Christianity than Peter.
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ERMAHGERD DINOSAURS 1 year ago
La Pieta was what popped into my head! I could stand there all day looking at it anytime in there.
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Casey Payne 1 year ago
OH MY GOD! I CAN'T BELIEVE THEY HAVE "THE INVISIBLE FARTING UNICORN". It's not supposed to exist, but there it is. If you can believe online photography these days. Amazing.
Nicole Weymann 1 year ago
"Picked up what was left lying around in the vicinity"?
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#14
Giraffy Window 1 year ago (edited)
Because back then, even though he had many followers, no one would have thought to go around collecting bits and bobs of Jesus's life and death. Plus, crucifixion was such a commonplace form of execution that the cross they would have put him on likely got reused for multiple executions till it fell apart.
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Downunderdude 1 year ago
If the Vatican sold just one tenth of its treasures, imagine the poverty and misery that it could eliminate.
Charlotte Sandoval 1 year ago
If you think that, you should see the extent of scientific work done on the Shroud of Turin. Catholics and science aren't nearly as opposed to each other as some have made out
Load More Replies... Casey Payne 1 year ago
But are they real? Only a taste test can tell us the truth. Some brave soul is going to have go to it, and lick it.
Giraffy Window 1 year ago
I'm sure there's been many a manky chunk of supposedly sanctified wood licked in the name of... Science.
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iseefractals 1 year ago
Every single "artifact" relating to Jesus that the church has presented has been debunked. Humanity, has come a long, long way in the past 2000 years, yet each and every single day we watch untold numbers of people fall for the absolute dumbest things. Flat earthers, anti-vaxxers, Q-anon....hell "queers for Palestine" with zero awareness of how insane that support actually is, faith healers, mega churches, two faced politicians, that b***h Debra from accounting, MAGA and woke propaganda....so much blatant bullshot, devoured by the masses...yet somehow, so many seem to think that the people who lived 2000 years ago were immune to the self serving bullshot of a conman, which was than perpetuated by an organization to amass power. Stop buying it.
Linda Riebel 1 year ago
I don't understand why Catholics revere instruments of Jesus's torture instead of obeying his lessons on love and charity. Do you?
Glenn Cuneo 1 year ago
Like all religion: It's all pretend. Like that gold cross--- sure would house and feed a few hundred thousand homeless, but noooooooooooooo! "The Church" needs it.....
#15
Bouche and Audi and Shyla, Oh My! 1 year ago
We can't access this stuff. It's not for us they have it.
Lee Henderson 1 year ago
We can't but I am sure scholars have access to it.
Load More Replies... Pyla 1 year ago
They must make it accessible to scholars. It would be great if it were scanned online.
Lorraine R 1 year ago
No, because "we" are, for the most part, idiots who would mishandle and damage these irreplaceable objects.
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Pedantic Panda 1 year ago
Preservation = hoarding. If they sold half of this stuff they could help a lot of people.
Casey Payne 1 year ago
Preservation = preservation. Why do you think this is still around today? Because no one sold it on the cheap to the highest bidder to resolve whatever was happening at the time. This isn't a senile grandparent hoarding toilet paper. This is the Vatican holding western civilization together for a thousand years or so.
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#16
Paul Gerrard 1 year ago
http://www.scavi.va/content/scavi/it.html The most amazing tour. Involves preplanning and prompt attendance. No cameras and no checked bags. Bring a camera or phone and you wont enter
#17
Hippopotamuses 1 year ago
Definitely necessary. There's nothing at all to indicate scale.
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UpupaEpops 1 year ago
The doors are over 2000 years old and each weigh 800 kg (1763 lbs) with a height measuring 7 meters. It's so well built that despite its sheer size, it takes just one person to open it.
der sebbl 1 year ago (edited)
Lateran, a Roman neighbourhood. Nothing to do with Luther
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#18
Who? Me? 1 year ago
I'm assuming the tomb of St. Peter. --- --- --- Rising above the altar is the baldacchino (95ft. canopy), Bernini's masterpiece and first work in St. Peter's. The ancient tomb of St. Peter lies directly below the altar.
Load More Replies... Paul Gerrard 1 year ago
Take the scavi tour and you can look up through several levels through the public crypt and to that structure. I guarantee its above the remains of st peter. I saw it. http://www.scavi.va/content/scavi/it.html
#19
Bouche and Audi and Shyla, Oh My! 1 year ago
Raise your hand, paw, hoof, wing, flipper, fin, or pseudopod if you clicked "show more".
Hippopotamuses 1 year ago
I clicked it after I read your comment. I am super dumb.
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Hiram's Friend 1 year ago
When we visited the Sistine Chapel, it was wall to wall Chinese. There were two clergy whose sole job it was to try to hush them, over and over and over.
#20
#21
Nicole Weymann 1 year ago
Yup, I agree. Baroque is not my favourite, either. Too opulent for me.
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Michael Largey 1 year ago
And apparently the only 60-70 year old guy ever to die in Italy.
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Herkfixer 1 year ago
It seems they were likely in reading order originally and BP mixed them all up.
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Cammy Mack 1 year ago
The apostle Peter. There is no provision in the Bible for anyone to be called a "saint". Catholic poppycock.
#23
Max Fox 1 year ago
Of COURSE it's real, because its OLD. Never mind that is was "gifted" some 670 years after the crucifixion, but it's OLD, so it MUST be real! So. Much.Bull$hit.
Maggie Fulton 1 year ago
And an emperor! Surely you can trust everything from an emperor!
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Add New Image
What do you think ?
Alexandra 1 year ago
The wealth of the Vatican is obscene and it just sits there, doing nothing, all the while people are dying from hunger and disease.
pep Ito 1 year ago
What you call wealth, if it were in the possession of a country, would be called museum collections.
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Bouche and Audi and Shyla, Oh My! 1 year ago
The Vatican arranged for many of the Nazi escapes to Argentina. This was supposedly in exchange for priests' lives.
Tabitha 1 year ago (edited)
Just imagine how many people could be clothed and fed with the value of these “treasures”. Religions always demand their believers do without and give give give, yet the higher ups hoard priceless treasures for themselves, instead of distributing their value amongst those who need it most. Sell off the Vatican treasures, open the vaults, and let’s get that wealth actually “trickling down” and doing the good you keep preaching about. How about that for a change? (Yeah. I hear the crickets too.)
Brian Irby 1 year ago
Why stop there. Let's empty all of the museums of the world, sell all to the highest bidder so that they will all be in the hands of billionaires and no one but them will ever be able to enjoy them.
Load More Replies... David 1 year ago
There are many ancient Jewish treasures from when the Romans sacked the Jewish Temple in 70CE that are believed to be in the Vatican (based off medieval documents), as well as a allegedly the stuffed and mounted head of Rabbi Yishamel, the last high priest of the Temple (executed by the Romans and his head was stuffed and mounted as a gift to a Roman Noblewoman)
Richard Wareham 1 year ago
A great deal of the Vatican's treasures are not available to the general public. Locked away and hidden as is the Catholic Churches vast wealth. Just imagine how much suffering in the world could be relieved if they just spread the wealth.
Gavin Johnson 1 year ago
Children abused, babies removed from their parents, children placed in orphanages and dying mysteriously, Nazis moved through Rat Lines to safety post WW2, paedophiles covered up and hidden and that’s the simple headlines. The Roman Catholic Church is rotten to the core and ought to be run out of town. But hey, look at the shiny stuff and send them some money eh? Look up Tim Minchin - Pope Song, it’s all there.
Alexandra 1 year ago
The wealth of the Vatican is obscene and it just sits there, doing nothing, all the while people are dying from hunger and disease.
pep Ito 1 year ago
What you call wealth, if it were in the possession of a country, would be called museum collections.
Load More Replies... Bouche and Audi and Shyla, Oh My! 1 year ago
The Vatican arranged for many of the Nazi escapes to Argentina. This was supposedly in exchange for priests' lives.
Tabitha 1 year ago (edited)
Just imagine how many people could be clothed and fed with the value of these “treasures”. Religions always demand their believers do without and give give give, yet the higher ups hoard priceless treasures for themselves, instead of distributing their value amongst those who need it most. Sell off the Vatican treasures, open the vaults, and let’s get that wealth actually “trickling down” and doing the good you keep preaching about. How about that for a change? (Yeah. I hear the crickets too.)
Brian Irby 1 year ago
Why stop there. Let's empty all of the museums of the world, sell all to the highest bidder so that they will all be in the hands of billionaires and no one but them will ever be able to enjoy them.
Load More Replies... David 1 year ago
There are many ancient Jewish treasures from when the Romans sacked the Jewish Temple in 70CE that are believed to be in the Vatican (based off medieval documents), as well as a allegedly the stuffed and mounted head of Rabbi Yishamel, the last high priest of the Temple (executed by the Romans and his head was stuffed and mounted as a gift to a Roman Noblewoman)
Richard Wareham 1 year ago
A great deal of the Vatican's treasures are not available to the general public. Locked away and hidden as is the Catholic Churches vast wealth. Just imagine how much suffering in the world could be relieved if they just spread the wealth.
Gavin Johnson 1 year ago
Children abused, babies removed from their parents, children placed in orphanages and dying mysteriously, Nazis moved through Rat Lines to safety post WW2, paedophiles covered up and hidden and that’s the simple headlines. The Roman Catholic Church is rotten to the core and ought to be run out of town. But hey, look at the shiny stuff and send them some money eh? Look up Tim Minchin - Pope Song, it’s all there.
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