Vatican may limit Sistine Chapel visits to preserve frescoes

VATICAN CITY — Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling frescoes turned 500 on Wednesday with the Vatican warning it might eventually limit visitors to protect one of the wonders of western civilization.

On Oct. 31, 1512, Pope Julius II said evening vespers to inaugurate the room where Michelangelo toiled for four years to finish his ceiling frescoes.

The frescoes immediately became the talk of the town and have since become the talk of the world.

The problem is it sometimes feels they have become the walk of the world. The Sistine Chapel is arguably the world’s most visited room.

Every year, five million people — as many as 20,000 a day in summer — enter the chapel and crane their necks upward. Most are left awestruck.

The ceiling of the chapel, where cardinals meet in secret conclaves to elect the new pope, includes one of the most famous scenes in the history of art — the arm of a gentle, bearded God reaching out to give life to Adam in the creation panel.

Last month, Italian literary critic Pietro Citati sparked a storm by writing an open letter in a major Italian newspaper denouncing the behaviour of crowds visiting what is technically a sacred place.

Tourists, he said, “resemble drunken herds” as they unwittingly risked damaging the frescoes with their breath, their perspiration, the dust on their shoes and body heat.

Antonio Paolucci, the director of the Vatican Museums, said he did not foresee limiting the number of visitors “in the short and medium term” but said the museums might not have any choice after that.

Under the current system, visitors to the Vatican museums can either book times to enter or wait in long queues outside, but there is no cap on the total daily number.