The private apartments tour at Castel Gandolfo

Why it is on the list

Urban VIII made the palace above Lake Albano the popes' summer house in 1626, and it has belonged to the Holy See ever since, apart from the years 1870 to 1929.¹ The private apartment, where popes received sovereigns and heads of state, stayed closed for centuries; in 1944 Pius XII gave it, his own bedroom included, to refugees, and forty children were born there.² Its rooms include the Papal Study, the Papal Bedchamber and the private chapel with its painting of Our Lady of Czestochowa.³ Of the visits the Papal Villas run, this guided tour of one to fifteen people is the one that goes into areas of the palace closed to the general public.⁴ The palace is still lived in: Pope Leo XIV stayed there in July 2026.⁵ From 4 August 2026 the Hall of the Popes shows Raphael's tapestry of Saint Paul Preaching at Athens, one of the set made for the Sistine Chapel.⁶

It is the wrong choice for a party of more than fifteen: the guided tour for private groups takes up to thirty, but it is not the one into the private areas.⁴

How to get it

Book the tour named "Apostolic Palace and Secret Garden reserved special private departments" on the Vatican Museums ticket site, linked from the Papal Villas' visits page.⁴ The standard palace ticket, with the Garden of the Moor and the Secret Garden, is EUR 12.00 in full.⁷⁶ Questions go to infopalazzo@villepontificie.va or +39 06 698 63260.⁸ The palace is on Piazza della Libertà in Castel Gandolfo, 24 kilometres from Rome, and a train runs to it directly from the Vatican.⁸⁴ Check the opening calendar before choosing a day: the palace sets its own closing days, and visitors are moved out of the rooms half an hour before closing.⁹

Discretion

The tour takes one to fifteen people, so the group stays small in rooms that are normally shut.⁴ The palace is an extraterritorial property of the Holy See and serves again as the pope's summer residence.⁵