The Vatican Secret Archives includes state papers, correspondence, account books, and many other documents that the church has accrued over the centuries. Under the orders of Pope Paul V, the Secret Archive was separated from the Vatican Library in the 17th century.
In this post
Dark Secrets About the Vatican
- The Chief Exorcist of the Vatican Performed 100,000+ Exorcisms.
- The Vatican Helped Nazi War Criminals Escape the Allied Forces.
- The Vatican Made Money from the Holocaust.
- Scandals of the Vatican Bank.
- Vatileaks.
- The Apostolic Penitentiary.
- Dead Man on Trial.
What is underneath the Vatican?
The Vatican Necropolis lies under the Vatican City, at depths varying between 5–12 metres below Saint Peter’s Basilica. The Vatican sponsored archaeological excavations (also known by their Italian name scavi) under Saint Peter’s in the years 1940–1949 which revealed parts of a necropolis dating to Imperial times.
What is inside the Vatican?
The Vatican Museums is home to a collection of roughly 70,000 works, including some of the most prominent Roman sculptures and Renaissance paintings, which have been amassed by the Catholic Church and the papacy over the centuries. Of these, only 20,000 are on display.
Does the Vatican have secret passages?
The 3 Vatican Secret Rooms you can see are: The Bramante Staircase. The Room of the Masks (also known as the Cabinet of the Masks) The Niccoline Chapel (also known as the Chapel of Nicholas V)
Is there a jail in the Vatican?
The Vatican has no prison system, apart from a few cells for pre-trial detention. People sentenced to imprisonment by the Vatican serve time in Italian prisons, with costs covered by the Vatican.
How much gold does the Vatican have?
The bank owns $764 million in equity. The bank keeps gold reserves worth over $20 million with the U.S. Federal Reserve.
Who is buried below the Vatican?
Also known as the Vatican Necropolis, The Tomb of the Dead or St. Peter’s Tomb, the area was discovered beneath St. Peter’s Basilica in the 1940s (around the time of World War II) when the Vatican commissioned excavations to be carried out there before Pope Pius IX was set to be buried in the space.
What is kept in the Vatican Secret Archives?
The Vatican Secret Archives includes state papers, correspondence, account books, and many other documents that the church has accrued over the centuries. Under the orders of Pope Paul V, the Secret Archive was separated from the Vatican Library in the 17th century.
Who is buried in the Vatican catacombs?
Peter
Rome is full of incredible things to visit, but if you want something really exclusive, there’s only one place to go: the Vatican Scavi. Also known as the Vatican City Necropolis, The Tomb of the Dead, or St. Peter’s Tomb, the Scavi is famous for being the final resting place of one of Jesus’ 12 apostles, Peter.
Who owns the Vatican?
The Holy See
The Holy See is the organization that owns the Vatican, i.e. the smallest independent city-state in the world. They print their own passports, have their own media, and even maintain their own mail service, all for a population numbering no more than 1,000 people.
How big is the Vatican Secret Archives?
The Vatican Apostolic Archive has been estimated to contain 85 kilometres (53 mi) of shelving, with 35,000 volumes in the selective catalogue alone. Complete archives of letters written by the popes, known as the papal registers, are available beginning with the papacy of Pope Innocent III (r. 1198–1216).
Who owns the Vatican bank?
It is not a private bank, as there are no owners or shareholders, but it has been established in the form of a juridical canonical foundation, pursuant to its Statutes. Since 9 July 2014, its President is Jean-Baptiste de Franssu.
Why is it called the Room of Tears?
Sistine Chapel
The Room of Tears receives its name, as a reference to tears that have been shed by newly elected popes within it. According to Fr. Christopher Whitehead, the room’s name can be explained “because the poor man obviously breaks down at being elected.” It is alternatively referred to as The Crying Room.
Why does the Vatican have walls?
“It was designed to be welcoming and to draw people in like two open arms, to draw them into the heart of the church.” Some of the walls in Vatican City were built in the ninth century by Pope Leo IV in an attempt to protect it from attacks by pirates and other marauders, historians said.
Do the Vatican archives exist?
Housed in one of the most iconic bastions of religion and culture ever, the Vatican’s Secret Archives are the stuff of historical legend—but their existence is absolutely real.
Has anyone been murdered in Vatican City?
Alois Estermann (October 29, 1954 – May 4, 1998) was a senior officer of the Pontifical Swiss Guard who was murdered in his apartment in Vatican City.
Why is nobody born in Vatican City?
No one is born in the Vatican State
As there are no hospitals in the Vatican State, virtually no one is born in there. Instead, Vatican citizenship is provided on a ‘jus officii’ basis. This means someone is made a citizen of the Vatican when they are appointed to work in the Holy See.
Can you wear sneakers at the Vatican?
What shoes to wear at the Vatican. There are no special rules about shoes at the Vatican and you can wear closed shoes or sandals.
Who owns the most gold privately?
Indian households have the largest private gold holdings in the world, standing at an estimated 24,000 metric tons. That figure surpasses the combined official gold reserves of the United States, Germany, Italy, France, China and Russia. See which countries have the largest gold reserves!
Does the pope’s chair have a hole in it?
There is no gender test. Chairs with a large hole cut in the seat are sometimes thought to have been used to check the sex of a new Pope. The story goes that the aim of the checks was to prevent a repeat of the scandal of “Pope Joan”, a legendary female cardinal supposedly elected pope in the 14th Century.