Bramante Staircase is the name given to two staircases in the

Vatican Museums The Vatican Museums ( it, Musei Vaticani; la, Musea Vaticana) are the public museums of the Vatican City. They display works from the immense collection amassed by the Catholic Church and the papacy throughout the centuries, including several of ...

in the

Vatican City State Vatican City (), officially the Vatican City State ( it, Stato della Città del Vaticano; la, Status Civitatis Vaticanae),—' * german: Vatikanstadt, cf. '—' (in Austria: ') * pl, Miasto Watykańskie, cf. '—' * pt, Cidade do Vati ...

: the original stair, built in 1505, and a modern equivalent from 1932.

The original staircase

The original Bramante staircase, in the Pio-Clementine Museum, was built in 1505 to a double helix design by

Donato Bramante Donato Bramante ( , , ; 1444 – 11 April 1514), born as Donato di Pascuccio d'Antonio and also known as Bramante Lazzari, was an Italian architect and painter. He introduced Renaissance architecture to Milan and the High Renaissance style ...

. It connects the

Belvedere palace The Belvedere is a historic building complex in Vienna, Austria, consisting of two Baroque palaces (the Upper and Lower Belvedere), the Orangery, and the Palace Stables. The buildings are set in a Baroque park landscape in the third district o ...

Pope Innocent VIII Pope Innocent VIII ( la, Innocentius VIII; it, Innocenzo VIII; 1432 – 25 July 1492), born Giovanni Battista Cybo (or Cibo), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 29 August 1484 to his death in July 1492. Son of th ...

to the outside and stands in a square tower of that building.Bramante Staircase at insightvacations.com
Retrieved 23 August 2015 The Bramante Staircase features granite

Doric column The Doric order was one of the three orders of ancient Greek and later Roman architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian. The Doric is most easily recognized by the simple circular capitals at the top of col ...

s and a herringbone paving pattern, and was designed to allow people and pack animals to ascend and descend without interruption. The stair is cited as the inspiration for

Antonio da Sangallo the Younger 250px, A model of the Apostolic Palace, which was the main project of Bramante during Sangallo's apprenticeship. 250px, The church of Santa Maria di Loreto near the Rome.html"_;"title="Trajan's_Market_in_Rome">Trajan's_Market_in_Rome. image: ...

's design for the double helix passageway at the well of San Patrizio in

Orvieto Orvieto () is a city and ''comune'' in the Province of Terni, southwestern Umbria, Italy, situated on the flat summit of a large butte of volcanic tuff. The city rises dramatically above the almost-vertical faces of tuff cliffs that are compl ...

, to solve a similar logistical problem. The staircase was built to allow

Pope Julius II Pope Julius II ( la, Iulius II; it, Giulio II; born Giuliano della Rovere; 5 December 144321 February 1513) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 1503 to his death in February 1513. Nicknamed the Warrior Pope or th ...

to enter his private residence while still in his carriage, since walking up the several flights in heavy papal vestments would have been onerous. It is not generally open to the public, though specialist tours do visit.

The modern staircase

The modern

double helix staircase Stairs are a structure designed to bridge a large vertical distance between lower and higher levels by dividing it into smaller vertical distances. This is achieved as a diagonal series of horizontal platforms called steps which enable passage ...

, also in the Pio-Clementine Museum, and commonly referred to as the "Bramante Staircase", was designed by

Giuseppe Momo Giuseppe Momo (1875–1940) was an Italian architect and engineer, perhaps best known for the Scala Momo in the Vatican Museums cast by Ferdinando Marinelli Artistic Foundry of Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Ita ...

, sculpted by

Antonio Maraini Antonio is a masculine given name of Etruscan origin deriving from the root name Antonius. It is a common name among Romance language-speaking populations as well as the Balkans and Lusophone Africa. It has been among the top 400 most popular male ...

and realized by the

Ferdinando Marinelli Artistic Foundry The Ferdinando Marinelli Artistic Foundry (Fonderia Artistica Ferdinando Marinelli also known as FAFM) is one of the last remaining Florentine foundries, producing works in bronze utilizing the Renaissance technique of lost-wax. A large number o ...

in 1932 and was inspired by the original Bramante Staircase. This staircase, like the original, is a

double helix A double is a look-alike or doppelgänger; one person or being that resembles another. Double, The Double or Dubble may also refer to: Film and television * Double (filmmaking), someone who substitutes for the credited actor of a character * ...

, having two staircases allowing people to ascend without meeting people descending; as with the original, the main purpose of this design is to allow uninterrupted traffic in each direction. It encircles the outer wall of a stairwell approximately fifteen meters wide and with a clear space at the centre. The balustrade around the ramp is of ornately worked metal. A canopy located above provides the necessary light to illuminate the stairs. The staircase is located at the end of the museum visit and all visitors leave by this route. Several architecture professors have speculated that Momo’s staircase (particularly the skylight and atrium, and the helical nature of the ramp and the technical aspects of its construction) was the inspiration for

Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements o ...

’s design for the

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, often referred to as The Guggenheim, is an art museum at 1071 Fifth Avenue on the corner of East 89th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It is the permanent home of a continuously exp ...

in New York.

References

{{Holy See topics Buildings and structures in Vatican City Double spiral staircases

The original staircase

The modern staircase

See also

References