What is the Sistine Chapel’s Latin name?

The Sistine Chapel’s Latin name is Sacellum Sixtinum.

The name is derived from Sixtus IV, the pope who ordered the chapel’s construction in the Vatican Apostolic Palace. In Latin, sacellum means a small sacred place or chapel, while Sixtinum refers to Sixtus. The Italian name is Cappella Sistina, and the English form is Sistine Chapel.

Construction took place from 1473 to 1481, replacing an earlier chapel known as the Cappella Magna. The building was consecrated in 1483. Its original decoration campaign involved leading fifteenth-century painters, including Sandro Botticelli, Domenico Ghirlandaio, and Pietro Perugino, before Michelangelo’s later ceiling and altar-wall frescoes.

The chapel’s name is sometimes confused with the Pauline Chapel, another Vatican chapel associated with Pope Paul III. The Sistine Chapel is especially important for papal liturgy and for conclaves, but its name refers to its founder, not to Michelangelo or to the papal election process.