2024-09-01 20:11:29
There are documents from the 8th century as well as court decisions that shaped history. The Vatican Apostolic Archive therefore chooses very well who it lets in. That is why the fourth part of the Aktuálně.cz series about the world’s most guarded places is dedicated to him.
The largest collection of historical documents in the world is stored in a two-story underground complex with shelves that would measure 85 kilometers when stacked. The Vatican Apostolic Archives contains all surviving materials issued by the Holy See, the oldest of which dates back to the 8th century.
There are accounting books and state documents, as well as correspondence between popes and various personalities. For example, former American President Abraham Lincoln wrote to the Holy Father, Queen Mary Stuart asked him for intercession and salvation from execution. Letters from Henry VIII. The Tudors of the 16th century, who wanted to have their marriage annulled in order to remarry, are in turn significant because they were at the birth of the Church of England. The monarch had it established after the Pope rejected his request.
An old file stored in the Vatican Apostolic Archives. | Photo: Profimedia.cz
The documents stored here describing court decisions are also significant. One of them approaches the dispute with the astronomer Galileo Galilei striving for free scientific research. The Vatican sent him to house arrest for life.
Rare writings have been stored in the Vatican archives for centuries, yet they have been stolen or lost. At the beginning of the 19th century, the French warlord Napoleon Bonaparte even looted the collections, writes the AP agency. The collection, whose official owner is always the incumbent pope, is therefore strictly guarded and almost no one was allowed to enter it most of the time. Researchers only got access at the end of the 19th century. Today the situation is different, yet the archive is very strictly protected because of a number of valuable documents.
A door protected by the Swiss Guard leads to the fire bunker. Only people with an entry permit, which is valid for a maximum of six months, can access them. No reporter, student or amateur historian will get it. Only academic staff recommended by someone have access. No one can move freely inside. In rooms specially designated for research activities, they can examine only those documents on which they have agreed in advance and which the archivists will bring to them. The number of bundles per day is also limited – three.
Researchers are allowed to take a computer with them, but they are not allowed to photograph anything. If they want to have a snack or a coffee, they have to go to the city, according to the server focused on security systems Identiv. In addition, all are monitored by archivists watching large screens connected to cameras in the reading room.
Interior of the Vatican Apostolic Archives. | Photo: Profimedia.cz
Exceptions that prove the rule
Nevertheless, there are exceptions where other groups have been allowed to enter. In 2002, World War II experts were given a special research permit. At that time, there was speculation about the connection between the Vatican and Nazi Germany, because the then Pope Pius XII. he hardly commented on the bloody events of the war.
“We know that during the war the Pope made a decision: he could not and did not want to speak. He was convinced that there would be an even worse massacre,” archbishop and, until recently, archivist Sergio Pagano explains to AP. “After the war, I would have expected the Pope to say more for all those people who went to the gas chambers,” adds Pagano, who gave a long interview about the Vatican Apostolic Archive, which the Italian journalist compiled into a book called Secretum.
Another exemption was granted by the Vatican in 2010 to a group of journalists. They received an invitation from the Holy See after the release of the movie Angels and Demons based on Dan Brown’s bestseller, in which the archive plays an important role. The Church wanted to show that the real archive does not resemble the film and book archive.
Digitization of hundreds of years old documents
Security measures are in place here not because the Vatican is hiding secret information, but because of the sensitivity of individual files. These are stored flat in special cases made of acid-free cardboard and placed in large sliding drawers. In the rooms, the humidity and climate are strictly controlled, safety is monitored here in addition to people, as well as the most modern technology, it is written on the website of the archive.
The oldest documents stored here date from the 8th century. | Photo: Profimedia.cz
They also play a role in preserving ancient documents for the future. Since the beginning of the millennium, the Vatican has been working on digitizing the archive. In 2018, over seven million pages with a size of 180 terabytes were already scanned.
At the same time, the archive cooperates with a local university, which uses artificial intelligence to convert texts written in barely legible script into common language. It then edits the scanned documents so that they can be searched by text.
Photo author: Aktuálně.cz
A series about the most guarded places in the world
The newspaper Aktuálně.cz will bring a seven-part series about the most guarded places in the world. Thanks to it, readers will get to know archives where the most secret documents lie, shelters in case of natural disasters or impregnable vaults full of gold