Frequently asked questions

Yes. Every visit is booked for a set date and half-hour, and the museum caps how many people it lets in each day. Busy days sell out completely, so book as soon as you know your date.

Entries are released 60 days before the visit date. The museum also releases a small number of extra entries two days before each date, which is worth knowing if your day shows as full.

Choose by age on the day of the visit: adult for 27 and over, the 18 to 26 fare, or the 10 to 17 fare. Children up to 9 are free and we add them to your booking at no charge.

Photo ID showing their age, such as a passport, national ID card or driving licence. The 18 to 26 and 10 to 17 fares are set by age, so a student card on its own is not what is checked.

No. The chapel prices each visitor by age and offers no family or group rate. Groups of ten or more book through the museum's own group channel; our fares are for individuals, couples and families.

No. The museum does not allow changes or refunds once a ticket is issued, and a ticket is only valid on its own date. Please check the date and half-hour carefully before you confirm.

We are an independent booking service, not the museum. You choose your date, half-hour and fares, we buy the official entry on the museum's own system in your names, and we email you the ticket. Our price includes the entry and our service.

If the museum cancels your visit, for example through an unplanned closure, you are refunded in full to the card you paid with.

Via Francesco De Sanctis 19/21, a narrow street off Piazza San Domenico Maggiore in the historic centre. With a ticket you go straight to the chapel door; the ticket office, temporarily at Via Raimondo di Sangro 12, is only for buying and for the toilets.

Your reservation stays valid for ten minutes after the time on the ticket. After that, entry is not guaranteed. Aim to arrive five or ten minutes early; the lanes around San Domenico Maggiore are slow going.

No. Photography, video and phone use are not allowed anywhere in the museum. It is a small, quiet room, and most visitors find the rule helps them look properly.

There is no time limit. The museum says visits run from a few minutes to over an hour. Forty minutes to an hour lets you see the three famous works, the vault and the Underground Chamber without hurrying.

The museum does not run guided tours itself. An optional audio guide of about 25 minutes, in Italian, English, Spanish, French or German, is rented at the museum, with a separate children's route for ages 6 to 12.

Partly. Wheelchair users can visit the whole nave, including the Veiled Christ, and the sacristy. The Underground Chamber with the Anatomical Machines is reached by a narrow spiral staircase and is not accessible.

Yes. The prince's payment order of 16 December 1752 refers to a statue covered with a veil of marble, and his letters say the shroud was cut from the same block. The story that he turned a real cloth to stone is a legend.

Corradini's Modesty, Queirolo's Disillusion with its marble net, the Glory of Heaven fresco on the vault, the Lamentation on the high altar, the prince's tomb, fragments of a labyrinth floor, and the Anatomical Machines downstairs.

The two skeletons are real. The network of blood vessels around them is a reconstruction in materials including beeswax and colourants, made by the Palermo doctor Giuseppe Salerno in the 1750s.

Normally no: Tuesday is the weekly closing day, and our booking calendar treats every Tuesday as closed. The museum opens on a few holiday Tuesdays; write to us if you need one of them.