Unlocking the history of the Vatican Museums
IT’S still dark outside when Gianni Crea pushes open the entrance door to the Vatican Museums, a heavy ring of keys in his hand. Soon he is moving through the deserted corridors to open some of the world’s most visited galleries.
Each of the 2,797 keys has between one and five copies, totaling the number to more than 10,000.
From Bramante’s spiral staircase to the Gallery of Maps, Crea weaves through the museums, between marble sculptures and Renaissance paintings. In a few hours, thousands of tourists will be crowding into the museums’1,400 rooms.
But before dawn, only the ring’s tinkling disturbs the silence of the halls containing masterpieces by Raphael or Leonardo da Vinci.
To cover the 7-kilometer route morning and night, he supervises a team of ten “clavigeri” (“keepers of the keys.”)
With the museums divided into four zones, every clavigero opens 60 to 75 doors.
VIP tour
The oldest key dates from 1771 and opens the Pio Clementino Museum.
During the conclave, those with yellow labels lock the doors of the rooms where the cardinals meet to elect the pope.
The most precious ring gives access to the Sistine Chapel and its vault decorated with Michelangelo’s frescoes. Protocol has it placed each evening in a sealed envelope and kept in a safe, itself protected within a narrow room with a reinforced door.
Recently, with a VIP ticket, small groups of 20 visitors can join Crea, enjoying the museums in their rare, uncrowded state.
The tour begins in a spacious, varnished wooden elevator and ends with a unique panorama of the Eternal City and the lush greenery of the Vatican Gardens, topped by the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica. The highlight is seeing the Sistine Chapel without hordes of noisy visitors.
Guests can “contemplate all the works alone, in complete tranquility,” Crea says.
With the help of a parish priest, Crea was hired in 1998.
Given an initial job “just to open and close” the doors, he began studying different languages — English, Spanish, French — and developed his art knowledge history.
After working under three popes, he has yet to give the current one, Francis, a private tour. “This is his home ... he can come whenever he likes,” Crea says.