Vatican Museums

This small room presents a collection of terracotta sarcophagi from Etruria in the Hellenistic Period. Produced in Tuscania throughout the second century B.C., they are a typical form with peculiar characteristics. The visitor’s attention is captured by a jewel of Renaissance architecture, Bramante’s spectacular spiral staircase, designed from 1504 to 1505 and completed by Pirro Ligorio in 1564.