It serves not only residential but also administrative functions. The building contains papal apartments, various Vatican government offices, private and public chapels, a museum, a library, and the Borgia Apartments.
The Borgia Apartments consist of six rooms adapted for personal use by Pope Alexander VI (Rodrigo Borgia). In the late 15th century, he commissioned Italian painter Bernardino di Betto (Pinturicchio) and his studio to decorate the apartments with frescoes. A recent restoration of the frescoes revealed a scene believed to be the earliest known European depiction of Native Americans, painted just two years after Christopher Columbus returned from the New World.
