Vatican Swiss Guards to get new eco-friendly home

Swiss Guards - image ICN/JS

Plans for the reconstruction of the barracks and headquarters of the Pontifical Swiss Guard in Vatican City, to make it eco- and family-friendly, were unveiled in the Vatican today.

In a message read at the presentation of the plans, Pope Francis said: "My life would be unthinkable without the Swiss Guards. They are always near me, day and night. Their professionalism, discipline, discretion, reliability and courtesy fill me with a great sense of gratitude. They are young men with a disciplined daily life, working 24 hours a day to assure me safety. For this reason it is extremely important that in the Vatican, which is becoming more and more a second homeland for them, their wives and children, that they have modern and at the same time safe housing."

The project is being financed by a Swiss charity established in 2016: the 'Foundation for the Renovation of the Barracks of the Papal Swiss Guard in the Vatican'. President of the Foundation, Jean-Pierre Roth, Commander Christoph Graf, architects Pia Durisch and Aldo Nolli, and a delegation from the Foundation had several meetings in the Vatican recently to present the new project.

"We have been encouraged and told to move forward and this is what we intend to do despite the difficult times we are living in," Roth explained. He expressed confidence they will find the necessary funds from donors and foundations.

Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin said the barracks had become is dilapidated and no longer offered adequate facilities for the Guards and their families.

The new building will be use eco-sustainable construction techniques. According to architect Durisch, "Respect for the environment will be central according to what Pope Francis wrote in the encyclical Laudato si'. He said they will recycle the demolition material and transform it into concrete. Architect Nolli said the new barracks will be "a sober structure which will need little maintenance and use simple materials."

Commander Christoph Graf is "convinced that the new building will make it easier to recruit Swiss youth who are enthusiastic about serving the Pope."

The Pontifical Swiss Guard is the world's longest-standing and smallest army in the world's smallest independent state. What is regarded as the pope's personal army, the Swiss Guard celebrated the 500th anniversary of its founding in 2006.

Established on January 22, 1506, the finest hour of the Pontifical Swiss Guard came on May 6 1527, when the troops of Charles V of Spain descended on Rome against Pope Clement VII on May 6, 1527, in what is known as the Sack of Rome. The defence of the city was left only to the Roman Militia and the Swiss Guard.

Vastly outnumbered by the invaders, every single Swiss Guard defending the main point of entry, 147 of them, were killled in the attack. They left 900 of the enemy dead. Only 42 of the 189 Swiss Guards survived.

Pope Clement VII was spirited away at the last minute by the surviving Swiss Guard through a secret corridor called the 'passetto' from the Vatican to the nearby fortress of Castel Sant'Angelo.

The massacre of May 6th, 1527 is commemorated each year in the Vatican with a swearing-in of all new guards to help remind them of the seriousness of their commitment in defending the Pope.