From spartan surroundings to the lap of luxury
Some rated small offices with windows. Others slept in very grand, but windowless, rooms with 40-foot ceilings decorated with murals by masters such as Raphael or paintings by Goya.
In 1958, in the conclave that elected Pope John XXIII, some cardinals had only curtains for privacy around their iron beds in hallways. Others had cots under stairways.
But this time around the cardinals will stay in an air-conditioned, suites-style hotel for papal electors, called the Casa Santa Marta.
The 15 million casa has 108 suites and 23 individual rooms, each with its own bathroom. The buff-coloured limestone building is between St Peter’s Basilica and the Pope Paul VI Audience Hall, where thousands saw Pope John Paul II each cold-weather Wednesday during his reign.
When the election begins, the cardinals will be protected by security as they are transported daily from the Santa Marta to the Sistine Chapel. If security proves as tight as Church regulations require, the world won’t know about the voting until each round - called a scrutiny - is over. Two scrutinies will be taken each day.
Even before the white smoke signals a Pope has been chosen, Italian tailors from the Gammarelli shop, at Via San Chiara, will get a police escort to the Vatican to fit the new pope into a white papal cassock. If the new pope follows tradition, the papal name he has chosen, and his birth name and his most recent title or job will be announced. Then he will walk onto the balcony of the papal apartments overlooking St Peter’s Square and wave at the waiting crowd, and the millions around the world watching on television.
