Room of Tributes
Room of Tributes
The Room of Tributes, the main room of the former Apartment of the Master of the Sacred Palaces, is the first of three encountered along the tour itinerary of the Christian Museum. Already used under Pius VII (1818) to temporarily accommodate the Library, part of the legacy of Cardinal Zelada, and by Pope Gregory XVI (1837) as an exhibition room for the Library collection of “primitives” (now transferred to the Pinacoteca), it owes its name to the fact that, under Benedict XV (Della Chiesa, 1914-1922) it housed tributes to Leo XIII and Pius X. It now contains silverware, ivories, enamels, vestments, chalices, crosses and religious objects from every era and of all types, documenting the varying tendencies and preferences in papal patronage throughout the centuries.