VATICAN CITY : Sistine Reopening
The majestic Sistine Chapel returns to public view Friday in all its splendor for the first time in 14 years. Pope John Paul II will say a mass of thanksgiving in the chapel to mark the completed restoration of Michelangelo’s “The Last Judgment.”
Stripped of centuries of grime, the painting of a righteous God welcoming the faithful and casting sinners into a fiery hell bursts with color and life.
It took four years to restore the 60-foot-high fresco behind the altar, and a decade before that to restore Michelangelo’s ceiling.
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