Laocoön and His Sons
A Trojan priest and his two sons losing to sea serpents, marble caught mid-strike.
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Within weeks of its February 1506 discovery, Pope Julius II had it hauled from a vineyard on the Oppian Hill and sent Michelangelo and Giuliano da Sangallo to the dig. The twisting, straining bodies shaped how Renaissance and Baroque sculptors carved suffering.
What to look for
- Laocoön's right arm bent sharply back over his shoulder — the real fragment, found in 1906, replaced the older straight-arm restoration only in 1957, proving Michelangelo right.
- The joins: at least seven interlocking marble pieces, not the single block Pliny the Elder claimed.
It's in the Museo Pio-Clementino wing of the Vatican Museums — you need a Vatican Museums ticket to reach it.
Laocoön and His Sons is one of 40 sights worth the detour in Rome, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Rome pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Rome
- Vatican CityThe world's smallest sovereign state fits in 44 hectares — you cross its border by stepping over a white line.
- ColosseumAround 50,000 Romans packed this stone oval to watch spectacles staged over a two-level warren of cages beneath the arena floor.
- St. Peter's BasilicaThe world's largest church, built directly over the grave believed to hold St. Peter's bones.
- Sistine ChapelMichelangelo painted the ceiling standing up, not on his back — and cardinals still elect the pope in this room.
- PantheonA 1,900-year-old concrete dome with a hole punched in the top — when it rains in Rome, it rains inside too.
- Stadio OlimpicoOne 70,634-seat bowl, two cross-town tenants: AS Roma and SS Lazio both play here.