Intervention of His Eminence Cardinal Mauro Gambetti

Intervention of Stefano Marsella, engineer

At 11.30, at the Holy See Press Office, Via della Conciliazione 54, at press conference was held present the conservative restoration, technological implementation and safety procedures carried out inside the Papal Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican by the Fabric of Saint Peter.

The restoration of the funeral monuments of Popes Paul III and Urban VIII and the lighting renovation of the Necropolis, the Archaeological Rooms and the Vatican Grottoes will be illustrated. The Saint Peter’s Basilica evacuation plan, drawn up in collaboration with the Italian Fire Brigade, in agreement with the Fire Brigade Command of the Governorate of the Vatican City State, was also communicated.

The speakers were: His Eminence Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, O.F.M. Conv., archpriest of the Papal Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican, vicar general of His Holiness for Vatican City and president of the Fabric of Saint Peter; Alberto Capitanucci, engineer, head of the Technical and Cultural Heritage Area of the Fabric of Saint Peter; Professor Pietro Zander, head of the Necropolis and Artistic Heritage of the Fabric of Saint Peter; and Stefano Marsella, engineer, central director for technological innovation and logistical resources of the Italian Fire Brigade.

The following are some of the interventions:

Intervention of His Eminence Cardinal Mauro Gambetti

The Fabric of Saint Peter proverbially never stops working, and tries to reciprocate the faith and love of the pilgrims and visitors who enter the Basilica. We want to give back what is given to us and what this place of the spirit has left us over the centuries, also and especially in the Jubilee Year.

In the heart of the Jubilee of Hope, the restoration of the funeral monuments of Popes Paul III and Urban, as well as the new lighting of theNecropolis and the Vatican Grottoes, are gestures of light and memory that accompany the pilgrim in an experience of contemplation, faith and beauty.

We want to allow visitors to admire the Glory of Gian Lorenzo Bernini together with the two grandiose sepulchral monuments located to the right and left of the Cathedra, one of Pope Farnese, by Guglielmo della Porta, and the other of Pope Barberini, again by Bernini.

We also want to offer an immersion in history and the profound experience of the sacred. We will see the archaeological spaces as they were seen by the first Christians, the Popes of centuries past, in the splendour of chiaroscuro that recalls the light of the torches that illuminated the birth of the Church and our path.

We owe all this to the offerings of those who come to pray in the Basilica and/or visit it, and, in particular, to some benefactors, the Knights of Columbus, who intervened for the Necropolis, and the Safavi Philanthropic Institute, which intervened for the Vatican Grottoes. Heartfelt thanks are due to all.

The Basilica is open to the world. Visited by twelve million people every year, probably twice as many during the Jubilee, it also needs security, to make everyone feel protected. Even the new evacuation plan for Saint Peter’s Basilica, which we will briefly illustrate, is a concrete expression of that pastoral solicitude that takes care of the wellbeing of every believer and visitor. Better management and faster exit flows guarantee greater ease and security. For this work we can never be grateful enough to the Italian Fire Brigade Corps who, in agreement with the Fire Brigade Command of the Governorate of Vatican City State, have developed a study and a project that could become exemplary for places of worship.

Urged by Pope Francis to be “artisans of hope and restorers of an often distracted and unhappy humanity”, we consider these works not only as necessary technical interventions, but as signs of a living Church, welcoming and attentive to the “things of God”, to the men and women of our time who thirst for love, peace and joy, who thirst for authentic spirituality.

Intervention of Stefano Marsella, engineer

The study and evaluation of the evacuation of Saint Peter’s Basilica have led to the definition of a new emergency plan, designed to reduce risks in critical situations, when the Basilica is full either due to the religious events of the Jubilee, or for the constant high influx of pilgrims and tourists.

The work was carried out by the staff of the Fabric of Saint Peter and, for the safety assessment aspects of the evacuation, by personnel from the National Fire Brigade, on the basis of the agreement signed on 25 October 2023 between the Department of Fire, Public Rescue and Civil Defence of the Ministry of the Interior and the Fabric of Saint Peter. This agreement is aimed at improving safety standards in the monumental complex of Saint Peter’s Basilica through training activities and, in this specific case, the collaborative effort that led to a comprehensive study of the escape routes inside St. Peter's Basilica.

The work began with the deployment of high-performance Laser Scanner systems by personnel of the National Fire Brigade to carry out the 3D survey with millimetric accuracy of almost the entire Basilica, both in the parts accessible to the public and in the potential escape routes. This activity made it possible to accurately reproduce the geometry of the sites and to verify certain details that were fundamental for the simulation without resorting to continuous surveys.