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FROM THE SECRET ARCHIVES TO THE NECROPOLIS UNDER THE SAINT PETER’S BASILICA. A JOURNEY TO THE DEPTHS OF THE SMALLEST STATE IN THE WORLD, GUIDED BY ALBERTO ANGELA
© Tiziana Fabi
© Jorg Greuel/Getty Images
VATICANO UPSIDE DOWN
he smallest state on Earth with the world’s greatest charm. Vatican City covers a surface of just 0.44 km², but holds 2,000 years of history, art, religion and politics between its walls. The cupola of the Saint Peter’s Basilica, 133 metres tall, overlooks the city. And if one abandons the majestic vertical sights to enter its bowels, one discovers an incredible subterranean universe. Alberto Angela, science divulgator and TV presenter, knows well that this miniature nation is an enormous treasure chest. He will open it and will show its most famous treasures, but also the hidden ones, on Stanotte a… Città del Vaticano (Tonight at... Vatican City), a program that will be broadcasted at Rai1 on the end of December. The journalist will descend into Archivio Segreto Vaticano (Vatican Secret Archives) ( 1), despite its name, “it has nothing to do with the one described by Dan Brown in Angels and Demons. With the word secret, we mean personal, private, or the responsibility of the secretariat. Dozens of kilometres of shelves that contain documents linked to pastoral or diplomatic activities, including the correspondence of the Holy See. In tv programme we will show the letter with the seals of English bishops who asked Pope Clement VII not to excommunicate Henry VIII. A piece of paper that recounts an important historical moment such as the Anglican schism.” Under the major altar of the Basilica, at four metres of depth, is the tomb of Saint Peter ( 2).
1 ART CITY·OCT2016