Capitoline Museums Guide: Tickets, Prices & What to See

The Capitoline Museums occupy Piazza del Campidoglio atop the Capitoline Hill, in two palaces — Palazzo dei Conservatori and Palazzo Nuovo — connected by an underground gallery built over the ancient Tabularium (Rome's state archive). Founded in 1471 when Pope Sixtus IV donated a group of ancient bronzes to the Roman people, it is widely considered the world's oldest public museum.

Standard admission is EUR 15.00 (EUR 9.50 reduced for EU citizens 18-25). Pre-purchasing online, by phone, or at the ticket office for a later date adds a EUR 1.00 presale fee; same-day ticket-office purchases do not. A separate, higher-priced combined ticket applies only during the current temporary exhibition.

The collection spans ancient Roman sculpture, Renaissance and Baroque painting, and the palazzi's own frescoed halls. Its best-known pieces include the bronze Capitoline Wolf (Lupa Capitolina), the Dying Gaul, Bernini's bust of Medusa, and the surviving marble fragments of the Colossus of Constantine — a monumental head, hand, and foot displayed in the Palazzo dei Conservatori's courtyard.

Piazza del Campidoglio itself, designed by Michelangelo, is freely accessible as a public square at any time — only the museum buildings around and beneath it require a ticket. Because the Capitoline Hill sits directly between the Roman Forum and Piazza Venezia, the museums are easy to combine with a Forum/Palatine or Piazza Venezia visit on the same day.

The museums trace to 1471, when Pope Sixtus IV donated a set of ancient bronze statues — including the Capitoline Wolf — to the people of Rome, to be displayed on the Capitoline Hill, the city's ancient civic and religious center. The collection grew over subsequent centuries as popes and the city added further antiquities and artworks.

Michelangelo redesigned the piazza and its surrounding facades starting in 1536, giving the square its current trapezoidal plan, the Cordonata ramp leading up from below, and the harmonized fronts of Palazzo dei Conservatori and Palazzo Nuovo facing each other across the square.