While people around the world are praying for the cardinals who will enter the conclave on Wednesday to elect the next pope, Vatican workers were busy with hammers, saws and wrenches preparing the Sistine Chapel as the cardinals’ polling place. Source: CNS.
In preparation for the conclave, the Sistine Chapel was closed to visitors on April 28.
Workers placed a protective covering over the marble mosaic floors and started carrying in pipes, couplers and sheets of subflooring.
The chapel is the highlight of most tours of the Vatican Museums and close to seven million people visit each year, especially to see the ceiling Michelangelo painted between 1508 and 1512 and the massive wall fresco of the Last Judgment he painted between 1535 and 1541.
As documented by the Vatican Media video team beginning on April 28, the din of tourists, constantly reminded that it is a chapel and they must whisper, was replaced with the sounds of hammering and sawing, the ping of metal couplings hitting metal couplings and the thud of the subfloor being laid.
The new floors and a few ramps, set on top of mini scaffolding, will eliminate most steps and make the chapel more accessible for the cardinals, whose average age is over 70.
Rows of tables and chairs will be added along the north and south walls so that the cardinals face each other. The tables closest to the walls will be raised slightly so that the cardinals in the back have a clear view.
While photographers, and tourists with a keen eye, watched from St Peter’s Square as Vatican firefighters installed a chimney on the chapel roof on Friday, Vatican Media photographers documented what was happening inside.
Two stoves, connected by a copper pipe, were installed: one to burn ballots and the other to burn chemicals to create either dark black or bright white smoke to let the public know if a pope was elected or not.
Before the conclave that elected Pope Benedict XVI in 2005, the ballots were burned with wet or dry straw, which produced the right colour, but never really created enough smoke to offer a clear signal.
Maintaining secrecy is part of the cardinals’ oath, so technicians will sweep the chapel for electronic surveillance or recording devices before the conclave.
FULL STORY
Creation, Last Judgment, stoves: Workers ready Sistine Chapel for conclave (By Cindy Wooden, CNS)
