What earlier chapel did the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel replace?

The Vatican’s Sistine Chapel replaced the earlier Cappella Magna.

The Cappella Magna was the Vatican’s medieval Great Chapel, used for important papal ceremonies. By the fifteenth century, the structure had deteriorated, and Pope Sixtus IV ordered a new chapel built on or near its site. The replacement became the chapel now known as the Sistine Chapel.

Construction took place during the 1470s, and the new chapel was consecrated in 1483. Its early decoration included frescoes by leading Renaissance painters such as Perugino, Botticelli, Ghirlandaio, and Cosimo Rosselli, before Michelangelo’s later ceiling transformed its fame.

The Cappella Magna should not be confused with the Pauline Chapel, another Vatican chapel built later under Pope Paul III. The name “Magna” means “great” and describes the earlier institution’s importance, not the later chapel’s artistic program.