The secrets of the Vatican MuseumsThe paintings of Saints Peter and Paul, on view at the Vatican MuseumsThis is the story of Gianni Crea, the "Gianni Crea".Clavigero Vatican"The Vatican Museum is one of the custodians authorized to use the 2,797 keys that open and close the papal treasures, that is, the Vatican Museums, no less than eleven different collections on display to the public beyond the Leonine Wall in Vatican City.
The Sistine Chapel, Raphael's Rooms and Loggia, the Roman marbles, the Gregorian-Egyptian and Etruscan museums, the Gallery of Tapestries, the Gallery of Candelabra, the Gallery of Maps, the Borgia Apartment and the Apartment of St. Pius V, and one could go on and on.
There is no place in the world so rich in art, genius, taste and faith. An exclusive journey that strikes the heart and mind, no one can remain indifferent, no one feels excluded, it is the secular miracle of great art. Paolo Ondarza reported on December 13 in Vatican News.
The route of the clavigero
Every day he opens and closes the doors of the seven kilometers of the Vatican Museums' exhibition route. It is just after 5 a.m. when it all begins. In front of the bistro that in a few hours' time will welcome visitors from all over the world, the clavigero opens a door: it leads to the bunker that houses, protected by a climate control system designed to prevent rust, the 2,798 keys that open the 11 sectors of the Museums. They are tested weekly, one by one, to check the operation of the locks and ensure their integrity.
"There are three keys more important than the others: the number '1' opens the monumental door at the exit of the Vatican Museums; the '401' weighs about half a kilo, was forged in 1700 and is the oldest and opens the entrance door of the Pio Clementino Museum, the first nucleus of the Vatican Museums; and finally the most precious, the key without number, forged in 1870, opens the door of the Sistine Chapel, seat of the Conclave since 1492", explains Gianni Crea, clavigero since 1999. The unnumbered key is kept inside a safe in an envelope sealed by the management of the Vatican Museum. Every morning, the ritual with which it is extracted evokes the fascination of distant centuries and the historical bond between the clavigeros -and the former Marshal of the Conclave and Custodian of the Holy Roman Church: the one who until 1966 was entrusted with the task of sealing all the accesses to the Holy Roman Church. sacellum when the cardinals met to elect the pope.
The clavigero begins at dawn, in solitude, the route that he will repeat at dusk. He opens, one after the other, the five hundred doors and windows of the entire itinerary to visit the papal collections, going through five centuries of history in about an hour. Open the heavy gate of the Pio Clementino Museum. Pass through the oldest core of the Vatican collection, passing through the Library to the Raphael Rooms. Learn all the secrets of the Vatican Museums, such as the rudimentary seismographs, hidden in the walls of the Room of the Immaculate Conception painted in the nineteenth century by Francesco Podesti: they were used to check the stability of the building after any seismic tremor.
The beam of light from the flashlight with which he inspects each room in the dark brings out of the gloom the immortal beauty of frescoes and sculptures, revealing secrets and details that the eye can barely catch in broad daylight, when the museum is crowded.
Along the ancient corridor of the Maps, the unusual inverted representation of Sicily and Calabria is a real eye-catcher. They are so represented because they are observed from Rome on two of the 40 giant maps that run 120 meters along the largest topographical representation ever made of Italy, from north to south, in extreme detail. It was commissioned by Gregory XIII Boncompagni to the best landscape painters of the sixteenth century.
Leaving behind open doors and gates, the passage of the clavigero evokes for a moment the historic "giant leap for mankind" of July 20, 1969. In fact, the lower galleries display fragments of moon rocks from the Apollo 11 expedition, donated by U.S. President Richard Nixon, along with the flag of the Vatican City State carried into space by the astronauts on that memorable date.
All types of keys
Ancient and modern keys, iron or aluminum, hand-forged, worn by time, today even electronic, the keys also open rooms inaccessible to the public, which the guardian has the duty to inspect daily: subway warehouses that guard, shrouded in mystery, anonymous portraits from Roman times whose gaze interrogates whoever comes across them; warehouses and attics on whose walls ancient custodians have left over the centuries traces of their passage with graffiti and inscriptions in pencil.
It is about 7 o'clock in the morning. The last door to open is the most awaited one. Made of wood, with a brass handle in the shape of an "S." "S" stands for "secret", which means reserved, closed; it is the room where the scrutiny and election of the Successor of Peter takes place: the Sistine Chapel.
The guardian of the gates
"Being clavigero is a task that almost gives you the feeling of guarding history. On the occasion of the election of the Pope, 12 keys allow the clavigero to close the entire area surrounding the Sistine Chapel. Immediately afterwards, scrupulously observing an ancient protocol, it is up to him to follow, together with the competent authorities, the work of the locksmith who places the seals to keep the secret of everything that happens inside the most famous chapel in the world; then, the clavigero deposit the keys in a metal box: it will remain in the custody of the Gendarmerie until the new Pope has been elected".
Until the pontificate of St. John Paul IIOnce the cardinals had entered the Conclave, they could not leave the area around the Sistine Chapel until the election had taken place: they were housed, in a state of seclusion, inside various rooms of the Vatican Palaces, adapted as dormitories for the occasion. Immediately after the "extra omnes"It was the duty of the Marshal of the Conclave to make sure that all the doors, windows and peepholes in the area where the cardinals were staying were securely locked. At the end of the control, this security agent would place the keys inside a red bag. Here they remained until the white smoke.
Being a layman belonging to the Roman aristocracy, the Marshal of the Conclave played a key role during the vacant see. Initially it was the Roman House of Savelli that held the title, inherited from 1712 until its suppression under Paul VI by the eldest son of the House of Chigi. In fact, the flag of the Marshal bears the coat of arms of the noble family of Sienese origin together with the symbol of the camarlengo and the two keys, not crossed as in the papal coats of arms, but separated and hanging laterally.
The Sistine Chapel is where the clavigera route ends, which since 2017 has been available by appointment. "When I started in 1999," says Gianni Crea, "there were three of us, but I had to wait three years to be able to open the Sistine Chapel. I imagined that moment for a long time and the emotion is still indescribable: every day I find it hard to believe that I have the honor of opening the center of Christianity to visitors from all over the world."
On the walls frescoed by artists of the fifteenth century, a painting by Pietro Perugino, Raphael's teacher, is striking for its high semantic and symbolic value. It represents the "Handing over of the keys to St. Peter". One is gilded and turned towards Christ, the other silvered: they respectively recall the power over the Kingdom of Heaven and the spiritual authority of the papacy on earth.
"To you I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven": this is the command of Jesus to the apostle Peter, the "clavigero of heaven".
