The Sistine Chapel in the Vatican owes its name to Pope Sixtus IV (1471-84) who commissioned it. The three-storey brick building was created to serve as a space for meetings of the papal court. It ...

None other than Italian painter Michelangelo decorated the Sistine Chapel’s ceiling. His masterpieces cover over 450 square metres and depict nine stories from the Book of Genesis.

The Chapel's ceiling is roughly 600 square meters, nearly the size of three tennis courts; a monumental task that Michelangelo painted almost entirely by himself.

Onlookers stood in awe as the video feed followed the cardinals from the Pauline Chapel to the Sistine Chapel. All the way, they sang the Litany of the Saints — invoking God to have mercy on ...

The smoke billowed out at 9 p.m. Wednesday, some four hours after 133 cardinals solemnly entered the Sistine Chapel, took their oaths of secrecy and formally opened the centuries-old ritual to ...