Castel Gandolfo: How to Visit the Papal Palace and Gardens

To visit Castel Gandolfo you buy the Vatican Museums’ “Papal Palace and Secret Garden” ticket: 12 € full price and 6 € reduced, sold in the Museums’ official online shop and at the Palace ticket office. Castel Gandolfo is a town in Lazio on the shore of Lake Albano, about 18 km southeast of Rome, where the popes have spent their summers since 1626. Opening hours change from day to day, so check the Palace’s official calendar before you go. From Rome you get there by train on the Rome–Albano line.

What Castel Gandolfo is

It is a small town in the Alban Hills, with about 8,200 residents, on top of the hill overlooking Lake Albano. It is known for the Pope’s summer residence, the Pontifical Villas, which since the Lateran Pacts of 1929 have had extraterritorial status: they are not territory of the Vatican state, but they enjoy immunities like those of an embassy. The palace and its gardens cover about 55 hectares.

Visits are run by the Vatican Museums, just like the Vatican Gardens or the Via Triumphalis necropolis.

What can you visit at Castel Gandolfo?

The official ticket is called the Papal Palace and Secret Garden of Castelgandolfo. The opening calendar also mentions the Garden of the Moor (Giardino del Moro). Here is what lies behind each name:

• The Papal Palace. Carlo Maderno rebuilt it for Urban VIII on top of the old castle of the Gandolfi family, from around 1200, which gave the town its name. Urban VIII was the first pope to live in it, in the spring of 1626. Alexander VII completed it with the facade facing the square and the great gallery, designed with Bernini’s help.
• The Garden of the Moor. This is the palace’s original garden, from Urban VIII’s time. It still follows its original layout, with paths dividing it into squares and myrtle hedges.
• The villas and their gardens. Clement XIV bought the neighboring Villa Cybo in 1773, and after 1929 Villa Barberini was added, with new gardens such as the Belvedere gardens. A raised walkway links the three villas to the palace above the street.
• Domitian’s villa. The Pontifical Villas stand on the central remains of the residence of Emperor Domitian (AD 81–96), which stretched some 14 km² from the Appian Way to the lake. The imperial villa included a cryptoporticus, the emperor’s covered walkway, about 300 meters long.

In the town stands the parish church of St Thomas of Villanova, by Bernini, commissioned by Alexander VII. It is dedicated to the Archbishop of Valencia whom the same pope canonized in 1658.

A palace with papal history

Year	Event
1596	The Apostolic Camera takes Castel Gandolfo over a 150,000-scudi debt owed by the Savelli
1604	It is declared inalienable property of the Holy See
1626	Urban VIII opens the summer residence
1773	Clement XIV buys Villa Cybo
1870–1929	The palace stands empty: the popes do not leave the Vatican
1929	The Lateran Pacts give it extraterritorial status
1934	The Vatican Observatory moves into the palace
1958 and 1978	Pius XII and Paul VI die here
2013	Benedict XVI lives here for a time after his resignation

How much is the ticket to Castel Gandolfo?

These are the Vatican Museums’ official prices for the Papal Palace and Secret Garden:

Ticket	Price	Who for
Full price	12 €	Adults
Reduced	6 €	Ages 7 to 18; students up to 25 with ID; priests, members of religious orders, seminarians and novices
Family rate	Reduced, free from the second child	Father, mother and at least two children aged 7 to 18 or students up to 25
Free	0 €	Children under 7; people with a certified disability of 67 % or more and their companion if they need assistance

Three things to know before you buy:

• The family rate is sold only at the Palace ticket office, not online.
• Free tickets for disability are also issued at the ticket office, on presentation of the certificate.
• The reduced ticket is non-refundable once booked or bought. If you do not show the document that qualifies you, it is canceled and you must buy a full-price ticket.

Opening hours

The Palace is not open every day or with the same hours. The Museums publish a calendar of openings and closures of the Papal Palace for 2026–2027, with several sets of hours depending on the day, and warn that visitors start being moved out of the rooms 30 minutes before closing. Check that calendar for your date before you leave Rome.

How do you get to Castel Gandolfo from Rome?

• By train. Castel Gandolfo has its own station on the Rome–Albano line. It is the simplest way to get there without a car.
• Distance. The town is about 18 km southeast of Rome, in the Castelli Romani, at 380 meters above sea level.
• On arrival. The Palace stands at the top of the hill and faces the town’s small square, Piazza della Libertà.

If you are spending the day, combine it with a morning in Rome or with the lake. Do not squeeze it into the same day as the Vatican Museums: the Museums route is about 7 km of galleries and the last entry is at 18:00.

Castel Gandolfo and your Vatican visit

The Castel Gandolfo ticket does not include the Museums or the Sistine Chapel, and vice versa. For Rome you need a different ticket: the Vatican Museums cost 20 € at the ticket office or 20 € + 5 € online, and if you want to book and skip the line, the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel ticket starts from $37 (partner price converted from euros at 1 EUR = 1.115 USD, ECB, 27 Oct 2026). Compare every option in Vatican tickets and tours.

To understand why a palace 18 km from Rome belongs to the Holy See, read the history of the Vatican and our guide to Vatican City.