Pio Clementine

The Pio-Clementine Museum ( no.30) was conceived by Clement XIV, who, in the years 1770 - 73, transformed the interior of a 15th-century loggia (the Palazzetto del Belvedere) and the charming little garden next to it in which Julius II and his immediate successor had assembled their personal collections of classical marbles, the early nucleus of the Vatican collections. The Museum was later enlarged (1776 - 86) by Pius VI with the construction of new buildings inspired by the architecture of imperial Rome.