The Bramante Staircase Most Visitors Think They Saw

Q: Is the Vatican spiral staircase the Bramante Staircase?

No. The spiral most visitors walk down at the exit was designed by Giuseppe Momo in 1932 and was inspired by Bramante's original. Bramante's staircase, from around 1505, is kept closed and is visited only on booked special tours or add-ons. Many reviews and photographs use Bramante's name for the exit staircase anyway.

Q: Can you visit the real Bramante Staircase?

Yes, but not with a standard ticket. Every report of seeing it in the corpus came through a special tour or an add-on booked in advance, often paired with the Chapel of Nicholas V. Check the current restricted-access options on the official Vatican Museums site, and confirm that the listing means the 1505 staircase.

Q: Will I see the spiral staircase if my tour uses the shortcut to St Peter's?

Usually not. The passage from the Sistine Chapel takes you into St Peter's Basilica instead of back to the museum exit, so the exit staircase is not on your route. If seeing it matters, leave through the museums rather than through the passage.

ByIntercoper Curator Team•September 11, 2026

Travel Analysts

📄The spiral at the Vatican Museums exit is Giuseppe Momo's, not Bramante's. The original stays locked and is seen only on tours booked in advance.

Giuseppe Momo's spiral staircase at the Vatican Museums exit, seen from above

💡Quick Answer

The spiral staircase almost every visitor walks down at the Vatican Museums exit is not Bramante's. Giuseppe Momo built it in 1932. Bramante's original, from around 1505, is kept closed and is reached only on special tours or add-ons booked in advance. Reviewers regularly give the exit staircase Bramante's name, and one who found out too late wrote that they missed the real one because they did not know it needed a specific ticket.

Two staircases, one name

The Vatican Museums have two famous spiral staircases, and most people who write about them only ever see one.

The first was built by Donato Bramante around 1505 for Pope Julius II. It sits in a part of the complex that is normally locked. The second is the wide spiral near the exit, designed by Giuseppe Momo in 1932 and walked down by nearly everyone who leaves the museums. The newer one was inspired by the older one, and it has borrowed its name in a great many photographs and reviews.

How 30 visitor reports describe the museum staircase

The exit spiral, without naming it

"The Bramante Staircase", without saying which

Asks about the original, or missed it

The exit spiral, correctly named as Momo's

Saw Bramante's original on a booked tour

The exit spiral, called Bramante's

classified by hand from 64 candidate items; the 34 not shown are about the basilica's architecture, the dome climb, other cities or false matches. Source: Vatican Tour Research Corpus 2026.

Only four of the 30 reports use the right name for the exit staircase. Two use Bramante's name for it outright, both written by Italian visitors, one of them from Rome:

“Per uscire si scende dalla scala rotonda del Bramante [To leave, you go down Bramante's round staircase]” — TripAdvisor, 5 stars, March 2022

Seven more list "the Bramante Staircase" among the sights of their visit without saying which one they mean. One of them was on a premium Key Master tour and may well have seen the original; the rest describe an ordinary museum route, where the only spiral on the way is the exit.

The trade-off: the confusion costs nothing if you only want the famous photograph, because the exit staircase is the one in it. It costs you the real thing if you came for Bramante and assumed any ticket would show it to you.

The one you walk down

The Momo staircase needs no booking and no guide. It is the way out. Reviewers who know what it is describe it well:

“The tour ends with the helical staircase by Giuseppe Momo, a contemporary work that, inspired by the famous Bramante staircase, combines functionality and beauty.” — TripAdvisor, 5 stars, January 2025

Its main appeal is visual, and reviewers who are unimpressed by the rest of the visit still stop for it. One three-star review, mostly about crowding, sets it apart:

“The exit is via a huge spiral staircase. It affords great photo opportunities near the top looking down, so definitely check that out before you leave.” — TripAdvisor, 3 stars, December 2023

There is one way to miss it, and it comes from a feature many buyers pay extra for. Tours that use the passage from the Sistine Chapel into St Peter's Basilica leave the museums at the other end of the route, so the exit staircase is not on the way. A visitor planning around that passage spotted the catch before going:

“I also read that we won't be able to access the Momo staircase if we exit from Sistine Chapel.” — Reddit, February 2026

The trade-off: the passage saves you the walk back and a second security line at St Peter's. It also takes you away from the staircase. If the photograph matters, leave through the museum exit.

The one you have to book

Four reports in the corpus describe seeing Bramante's original, and all four came through a booked special tour or an add-on, never a standard ticket. The most detailed is from a tour where guests open the doors themselves:

“The 1500s Bramante Staircase is also on the tour, which I don't think is available normally. The tourists get to unlock the doors.” — YouTube, March 2025

Two of the four pair it with the Chapel of Nicholas V, which suggests the two are sold together as a restricted-access extension:

“The tour with an add on of Nicholas V and the Bramante Staircase was terrific.” — TripAdvisor, 5 stars, June 2024

An Italian reviewer described the same pairing in 2022 as "previa prenotazione, due reparti dei musei usualmente chiusi al pubblico": by prior booking, two sections of the museums usually closed to the public.

The corpus has no reliable price for this access. The one reviewer who mentions cost says only that it "has gotten a lot more expensive". What these tours are called and what they cost changes, so the name of the product matters less than what it includes.

The trade-off: you pay for a restricted-access tour or add-on and book it ahead. In return you see a space almost no one else in the building sees. Ask in writing whether the listing means Bramante's 1505 staircase or the Momo staircase at the exit, because both are sold under the same name.

How people miss it

The failure mode is not being refused at a door. It is never knowing there was a door. One reviewer realized only afterwards:

“Momo wonderful but i lost Bramante because i don't know that need a specific ticket” — TripAdvisor, 5 stars, September 2021

Others spot the gap while planning and ask. A visitor comparing early guided tours in February 2025 noticed they "don't include things like the Pinacoteca or the Bramante stairs" and wanted to know whether they could go back afterwards. No standard group tour in the corpus is described as including the original, and none of the reports of seeing it mention a regular ticket.

The trade-off: a standard tour or ticket covers the highlights and the exit staircase at no extra cost. If Bramante's staircase is on your list, it has to be booked as its own item before you arrive. It cannot be added at the door.

The verdict

If you want the famous photograph, any ticket will do. It is the staircase on your way out, as long as your tour does not end with the passage into St Peter's. If you want Bramante's own staircase, book a restricted-access tour or add-on that names it, and confirm which staircase they mean before paying.

If you want	What to book
The famous spiral photograph	Any museum ticket or tour; leave through the museum exit
To photograph it from above	Stop at the top of the exit ramp before starting down
Bramante's original staircase	A restricted-access tour or add-on booked ahead that names it
Both	A museum visit plus that add-on, finishing at the museum exit
The shortcut into St Peter's	Accept that the exit staircase will not be on your route

Source: Vatican Tour Research Corpus 2026.

Common questions

❓ Is the Vatican spiral staircase the Bramante Staircase?

No. The spiral most visitors walk down at the exit was designed by Giuseppe Momo in 1932 and was inspired by Bramante's original. Bramante's staircase, from around 1505, is kept closed and is visited only on booked special tours or add-ons. Many reviews and photographs use Bramante's name for the exit staircase anyway.

❓ Can you visit the real Bramante Staircase?

Yes, but not with a standard ticket. Every report of seeing it in the corpus came through a special tour or an add-on booked in advance, often paired with the Chapel of Nicholas V. Check the current restricted-access options on the official Vatican Museums site, and confirm that the listing means the 1505 staircase.

❓ Will I see the spiral staircase if my tour uses the shortcut to St Peter's?

Usually not. The passage from the Sistine Chapel takes you into St Peter's Basilica instead of back to the museum exit, so the exit staircase is not on your route. If seeing it matters, leave through the museums rather than through the passage.

Author and Method

Research and analysis by the Intercoper Curator Team for VaticanTourGuides. Reviewed by Mario Dalo, founder of Intercoper.

Dataset: 22,771 items from 7 platforms, 99.5% enriched with per-item topic tagging and sentiment analysis.

Relevant to this article: 64 items mention Bramante, the Momo staircase, a double helix or a spiral staircase at the Vatican. We read each one. 30 describe one of the museum staircases and are the basis of this article. The rest mention Bramante as an architect of St Peter's (21), describe the spiral stairs of the dome climb (9), concern another city (2) or are false matches (2).

The classification was done by hand because the wording is ambiguous: a review that lists "the Bramante Staircase" among its sights could mean either one. Those seven are counted as unclear rather than assigned. The construction dates, around 1505 and 1932, come from standard architectural references, not from the corpus.

Evidence trail: full research method at our methodology page; dataset documentation and source breakdown at the Vatican Research Program.

About the Author

Intercoper Curator Team

Travel Analysts

Our team analyzes what travelers publicly reported about each tour — thousands of reviews, forum threads and questions — and verifies what can be verified against operators and official sources. We publish what the evidence supports, including the parts that argue against a booking.

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