Pope Benedict XVI Blog

"My Summers with the Popes in Castel Gandolfo." The Director of the Pontifical Villas Reminisces

The children born in the bedroom of Pius XII. The secret getaways of John XXIII. John Paul II went swimming. Benedict XVI plays sonatas on the piano. This and more, in an interview with a unique eyewitness

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by Sandro Magister



ROMA, September 26, 2008 – At the end of the month, Benedict XVI will leave the Pontifical Villas of Castel Gandolfo and will return to the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican. Since the beginning of July, the pope has been staying in this hillside town about twenty-five miles from St. Peter's Square. Summer vacation in Castel Gandolfo has been the custom of the last few popes. But few know what is different about their daily lives when they come here.

A first glimpse of the "popes in the countryside" was provided in a book with this title ("I papi in campagna"), published in 1953 by the director of the Pontifical Villas at the time, Emilio Bonomelli. Another book was published in 2000, under the signature of his successor, Saverio Petrillo: "Le Ville Pontificie di Castel Gandolfo," published by the Vatican Museums. It confirms for us that the Pontifical Villas occupy the central and most significant place in one of the most luxurious villas of Roman antiquity, the "Albanum Domitianum," the residence of the Emperor Domitian, who reigned from the years 81 to 96. Eight centuries before this, present-day Castel Gandolfo was the site of Alba Longa, a city that rivaled Rome at the beginning of its history.

But now, the director of the Pontifical Villas, Petrillo, has returned to this subject with a long interview in "L'Osservatore Romano," in which he reveals a number of previously unknown aspects of the time spent in Castel Gandolfo by the recent popes.
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posted by Dr. Denice Hanley, DPM, M.Div. @ 9:44 AM