Vatican
THE, the most extensive palace in the world, and, as the residence of the Pope, and the storehouse of valum
SWISS GUARD OF THE POPE VATICAN COUNCIL court of old St. Peter's and it was rebuilt by Eugene III. and enlarged by Nicholas III. The vatican did not, however supersede the Lateran as the usual residence of the Popes till their return from Avignon in 1377. The first conclave, held in 1378, resulted in the socalled Western Schism. In 1450 Nicholas V., with the object of making the Vatican the most imposing of palaces, began the work of combining with it the residences and offices of the cardinals, and the small portion completed by him, afterward occupied by Alexander VI., and named Tor di Borgia, was extended by subsequent Popes. The Sistine Chapel was erected by Sixtus IV. in 1473, and the Belvedere or garden house by Innocent VIII. in 1490. Bramante, under Julius II., united the latter with the palace by means of a great court, and constructed the Loggie round the Cortile di S. Damasco. By the erection of the library Sixtus V. divided Bramante's great court into two parts, the anterior court and Giardino della Pigna. The Pauline Chapel was the work of Paul III. (1534), and the present residence of the Popes was completed by Clement VIII. (1592-1605). The labor of extending and adorning the Vatican was continued by Urban VIII., Pius VII., and Gregory XVI.; and even Pius IX., amid the revolutionary struggles of the 19th century, found time to inclose the fourth side of the Cortile di S. Damasco by reconstructing the great staircase forming the approach from the colonnade of St.
Peter's. The palace now comprises 20 courts and some 11,000 halls, chapels, saloons, and private apartments. Chief among its great art treasures are the Sistine frescoes of Michael Angelo and Raphael's Stanze and Loggie. The picture gallery is one of the richest in Rome, and the collection of antiquities is the finest in the world, including extensive Egyptian and Etruscan museums, and comprising among its classical sculptures the Torso of Hercules, the Laocoon, and the Apollo Belvedere. The library now contains 34,000 MSS. able literary and art collections, one of the chief attractions of modern Rome.
A building of the kind was erected on the Mons Vaticanus by Pope Symmachus about the year 500, near the anterior