The museum

The Galleria Borghese Museum houses and displays a collection of ancient sculptures, bas-reliefs, and mosaics, as well as paintings and sculptures dating from the 15th through the 19th centuries. Among the masterpieces of the collection – the first and most important part of which goes back to the collecting of Cardinal Scipione Borghese (1579-1633), nephew of Pope Paul V – are paintings by Caravaggio, Raphael, Titian, Correggio, Antonello da Messina, and Giovanni Bellini and sculptures by Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Canova. The works are displayed in the 20 frescoed rooms that, together with the portico and the entrance hall, constitute the spaces of the Museum open to the public. More than 260 paintings are housed in the storerooms of the Galleria Borghese, which are located above the floor of the Pinacoteca and set up like a picture gallery. The storerooms may be visited by booking a time.

For safety reasons connected with the structure of the building, a maximum of 360 people at a time are admitted to the Museum for visits lasting two hours, after which they must leave.