The Sistine Chapel In The Heart Of The Vatican City

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One of the most famous works of art ever created, the Sistine Chapel lies in the heart of Vatican City. Architecture and interior design give the Chapel a one of a kind facade while the temple’s history sheds light on its implicit value to the Catholic world and renaissance enthusiasts.
Vatican City is an international tourist destination for millions of people yearly yet it is home to less than a thousand people. Vatican City’s economy stems most of its annual revenue from tourism. The selling of stamps, museum admissions, tourist souvenirs, and religious publications all contribute to the care taking of the City. Created from the dust of the demolished Cappella Maggiore, the past Papal Temple, the Sistine chapel was constructed beginning in late 1473. Pope Sixtus IV gave breath to the demolition of the old chapel with the intention of building the most beautiful building for god’s people. The chapel is used approximately 50 times per year for a soulful mass. When the time comes for a new pope, the Sistine Chapel is used for the congregation of all the Cardinals for voting. A Cardinals “[is] a high ecclesiastic figure appointed by the pope to the College of Cardinals” (Cardinal). Voting comes in rounds each with different rules regarding for whom one can vote for. “The first being an ordinary ballot at which each Cardinal has to vote ; the second, termed technically the accessus, where it is allowable for a cardinal to transfer his previous vote to any candidate who may have obtained votes on that same previous occasion” (Cartwright 196). Accessus rounds can immediately follow the previous round of normal voting so there is lots of conversation following the announced results of each first round. Cardinals come from all over t...

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...f frescoes painted by the most famous of artists. There isn’t a religious building in the world that compares to the magnificently detailed stories that line the walls. To stand inside such a building is to feel the presence of God, and that is something that cannot be put into words.

Works Cited

"Cardinal." Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com, n.d. Web. 29 July 2014.

Cartwright, William Cornwallis. On Papal Conclaves. Edinburgh: Edmonston and Douglas, 1868. Print.

King, Ross. Michelangelo & the Pope's Ceiling. New York: Walker, 2003. Print.

Schubring, Paul. Sistine Chapel. Rome: Frank, 1910. Print.

Seymour, Charles. Michelangelo, the Sistine Chapel Ceiling: Illustrations, Introductory Essays, Backgrounds and Sources, Critical Essays. New York: Norton, 1972. Print.

Wallace, William E. Michelangelo, Selected Scholarship in English. Hamden, CT: Garland, 1995. Print.

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