Construction of the present Sistine Chapel began in 1473. Pope Sixtus IV commissioned the building as a papal chapel within the Vatican complex, and the project replaced an earlier chapel known as the Cappella Magna.
The building campaign took place during the Renaissance, when the papal court was reshaping Rome through architecture, painting, and sculpture. The chapel was completed in the early 1480s, before its first major decoration program was installed.
The date 1473 can be confused with 1481, the year associated with the completion of the building and the arrival of several Renaissance painters for the wall frescoes. Michelangelo’s work came later: he painted the ceiling between 1508 and 1512, during the pontificate of Julius II.
The chapel’s name comes from Sixtus IV, whose Latin name was Sixtus. Its original purpose was liturgical and ceremonial, not primarily as a tourist monument or an art gallery.