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Luxurious Papal apartments are opened to the public for the first time after Francis refused to stay there because they are too plush

Vatican has opened up private apartments at papal summer retreat in Castel Gandolfo, to the south of Rome.

Pope Francis has declined to use the palazzo preferring to spend summer at home in his Vatican hotel suite.

Sprawling 135-acre estate in Alban hills has been gradually made more accessible to members of the public.

The Vatican opened the private apartments at the papal summer retreat to the outside world. An exterior view of the Apostolic Palace of Castel Gandolfo is shown above.

Visitors can tour the never-before-seen private apartment of the palazzo itself, including the Consistory Room where Pius XII made Angelo Roncalli a cardinal in 1953. A bust of the late Pope John Paul II is pictured on display in the gallery of Alexander VII.

A view of the Consistory Hall during a preview of the opening to the public of the papal apartment in the Apostolic Palace of Castel Gandolfo.

Pope Francis has declined to use the palazzo in Castel Gandolfo, south of Rome, preferring to spend his summer downtime at home in the Vatican hotel suite where he lives. Picture shows the gallery of Alexander VII at the estate.

Steps leading to the Pope's private apartment during a preview of the opening to the private apartments.

Images show the plush interior of the Vatican's Papal apartments - after they were opened up to the public for the first time.

he Vatican Museums, home to the Sistine Chapel and other papal treasures, run the Castel Gandolfo estate, which features a working farm that supplies the Vatican with fresh dairy, eggs, honey and produce.

The papal apartment at the popes' summer residence in Castel Gandolfo in the Alban hills, has been opened to the public for the first time ever.

Popes past have always used it as a summer getaway, and Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI famously closed out his papacy there on February 28, 2013.

Pope Francis called on Benedict at Castel Gandolfo soon after his 2013 election. The two men in white chatted together and then prayed together in the now-open-to-the-public private chapel.

This picture shows the interior of the pope's room in the Apostolic Palace of Castel Gandolfo.

In 2014, the gardens opened to visitors, in part to help offset the economic downturn the lake-front town has experienced since Francis decided to stay put in Rome.

Visitors have been given a rare look at the bed where Popes Pius XII and Paul VI died and where John Paul II recovered from an assassination attempt in 1981.

Visitors will able to take a rare look inside the apartment and view a number of rooms. A plant pot is pictured in one of the rooms.

Last year the Vatican inaugurated a weekly train service so visitors can see both the Vatican and the leafy hill-top refuge in one day.

Pope Pius XII (left), pictured circa 1945 in his finery and (right) Pope John XXIII, who served in the position for four years from 1958 - both at the retreat.

Pope Pius XII lying in state at the summer residence. He died in 1958 at the age of 82.

Pope Paul VI speaks from a balcony of the papal residence in Castel Gandolfo in 1968.

Pope John Paul II points to Lake Albano as President Bush looks on, during their first meeting at the Pontiff's summer residence in July 2001.

President Bush with Pope John Paul II at the country retreat in 2001.

Pope Benedict XVI gives his farewell greeting in Castel Gandolfo.

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI (right) greets Pope Francis upon his arrival at the heliport in Castel Gandolfo in 2013.