Wow! A Full-Sized Replica Of Sistine Chapel
Visitors flock to the Sistine Chapel to view Michelangelo’s frescoes, but the fingers of God and Adam are now also meeting in Mexico City in a recently revealed, full-size replica of the entire building. Rising on the Plaza de la República near the landmark Monument to the Revolution, the massive structure marks the first time the Vatican has given permission to reproduce the chapel on this scale, according to Antonio Berumen, a local who initiated the project.
The idea for Capilla Sixtina en México came out of Berumen’s trip to the real 15th-century church, where he apparently witnessed a Mexican woman moved to tears, as El Universal reported. He’s since made it his “mission†over the past two years to make a replica in his home nation a reality. Inside the newly risen structure, however, Michelangelo’s paintings are photographic reproductions printed on canvas, their religious scenes composed of over 2.6 million images each about an inch large to properly cover the curving architecture. Photographers had visited Vatican City, where they spent 170 nights capturing the paintings under the supervision of Vatican Museum Director Antonio Paolucci.
