The story of this place
Reluctantly accepting the commission from Pope Julius II, Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel ceiling between 1508 and 1512—over 300 figures across 500 square metres, including the immortal 'Creation of Adam,' where God's finger reaches toward man's. He worked standing on scaffolding, neck craned back, developing chronic strain he lamented in a poem. Two decades later, from 1536 to 1541, he returned to paint 'The Last Judgment' on the altar wall—a terrifying vision that scandalised some with its nudity, later partly covered by other hands. Beneath these frescoes, cardinals still lock themselves in conclave to elect each pope, the white smoke rising above Vatican City.