Visiting Italy to tour museums and other historic sites may be tough to pull off right now, but we have the next best thing available in San Antonio this summer.
The immersive Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel: The Exhibition allows visitors to experience this art up close in an unusual location just minutes from the Broadway Street corridor in the Government Hill neighborhood.
The exhibit will include 34 reproductions of Michelangelo’s works that adorn the Sistine Chapel in Italy, including “The Creation of Adam” and “The Last Judgement.” The near life-sized exhibit is set up throughout the 9,000-square-foot historic Lamberton mansion with art on all three of the building’s levels, the first time the touring exhibition will be hosted in a historic house.
“This is such a unique place, we thought it had a certain charm,” said Martin Biallas, CEO of See Global Entertainment, the Los Angeles-based company producing the exhibition. “We’ve already booked 20,000 tickets in advance for the first three weeks. We sold 4,000 tickets alone on our first day.”
You can get timed-entry tickets or stop by to visit as Biallas said they are encouraging walk-ins.
The ceiling paintings from the Sistine Chapel have been reproduced in licensed high-definition photos printed to reproduce the look and feel of the original paintings. Rather than craning your neck as you are shuffled through the chapel in a crowd, visitors can comfortably examine every brushstroke in Michaelangelo’s 34 frescoes. Each image has informative signage, and audio guides are available to rent for a more in-depth tour.
The Lambermont was built in 1894 for Edwin Holland Terrell, a lawyer, statesman, and ambassador to President Benjamin Harrison. Terrel asked English architect Alfred Giles to build him a castle with nine fireplaces and grand galleried porches.
The show’s stint in San Antonio marks the final 2021 stop for the exhibit. The tour is also in Chicago, IL, Charlotte, NC, and Charleston, SC, and starts again in 2023 in Santa Barbara, California.
The first floor of the exhibit is wheelchair accessible, while the second and third floors are not. However, the organizers have displayed the frescos in poster size on the first floor level for those that can not walk to the upper floors.
Michaelangelo’s Sistine Chapel: The Exhibition
- Lambermont Mansion, 950 E. Grayson St.
- Runs from June 11-September 30
- Tickets start at $13.50 for a 90-minute viewing
- Walk-ins encouraged
- English and Spanish audio guides are available
- Open for viewing Thursdays through Sundays from 10 am-6 pm
The featured image is of the historic Lambermont Mansion, which is hosting the traveling Sistine Chapel exhibition, courtesy image.