Michelangelo was just five years old in 1480 when Pope Sixtus IV commissioned the building of the Sistine Chapel. The chapel was part of a glorification of the Vatican carried out by Sixtus.

Sixtus IV also had a taste for nepotism, as did many other popes: He made six of his nephews cardinals. On the bright side, he did commission the Sistine Chapel. Innocent VII, who became pope in ...

The Sistine Chapel was commissioned by Pope Sixtus IV for the Jubilee of 1475, and the big Vatican garage was built for the 2000 Jubilee under St. John Paul II. Pope Boniface VII called the first ...