Habemus Papam--Greetings from the Vatican, c. 1970s

A few more postcards from the Vatican show some rather surprising scenes, too

With yesterday’s election of Robert Francis Prevost—who chose the name Leo XIV—as pontiff, the Conclave has concluded. Hence, I thought I might as well throw in some more Vatican-themed postcards to round off our trip to the Eternal City:

An aerial view of St Peter’s, with the monumental Via della Conciliazione—built between the 1930s and 1950s—continues to draw the ire of many Romans (per Wikipedia; kept most of the references so you can check out these buildings):

Demolition of the spina of Borgo began with Mussolini's symbolic strike of the first building with a pickaxe on 29 October 1936 and continued for twelve months. Even at the time, the demolition proved controversial, with many Borgo residents displaced en masse to settlements (“borgate”) outside of the city. Among the buildings dismantled, either totally or in part, and rebuilt in another position, were the Palazzo dei Convertendi, the house of Giacomo Bartolomeo da Brescia, the Church of the Nunziatina, and the palaces Rusticucci-Accoramboni and degli Alicorni (the latter had been already demolished in 1931). Other buildings, including the palace of the Governatore di Borgo and the Churches of San Giacomo Scossacavalli and Sant’Angelo al Corridore, were not rebuilt after their destruction. Facing into the cleared area are five other historical buildings, the Palazzo Giraud Torlonia, the church of Santa Maria in Traspontina, the Palazzo dei Penitenzieri, Palazzo Serristori, and Palazzo Cesi (which was mutilated).

I also found these two postcards showing members of the Swiss Guard taking an oath, which will soon be replayed (or has been done already) now that a new pope was elected. While they are part ceremonial force, they actually do perform security services for the Vatican and they are also trained in more modern weaponry (even though that might be betrayed by their colourful Renaissance era uniforms). Below, you can see them in front of of the Arc of the Bells:

Finally, I wish to draw your attention to the below black-and-white postcard showing St Peter’s Square in the 1950s—simply because I like these “older” postcards as they often have a particular aesthetic quality that the more modern ones (such as the colourful ones shown above, which were all mailed in the 1970s, frequently lack, with the oath ceremony perhaps being an exception here):

And with these images, we’ll say “Addio, Roma” for the time being and travel on.