The papal apartment, vacant since Benedict XVI’s resignation and never inhabited by Francis, is now ready after nine months of work, and the move could take place in the coming days.
Pope Leo XIV is preparing to return to the pontifical residence in the Apostolic Palace, which has been closed and unused for thirteen years. According to an announcement from the Sala Stampa, the historic papal apartment, subjected to a thorough renovation over the last nine months, is now ready to receive its new occupant, and the move could take place before Easter.
The move will now depend on the final indications from the Pope’s Secretariat, which will need to coordinate with the Vatican’s internal services the exact timing of the transfer. Inside the Apostolic Palace, however, everything is already prepared. The works have been completed, the furniture installed, and the final details of upholstery and finishes have been finished, always under the technical supervision of architects, surveyors, and specialists who have worked for months on the third loggia of the building.
The reform has not been straightforward. Some tasks turned out to be more complex than anticipated due to the accumulated deterioration from over a decade of abandonment. Among the most delicate interventions were the waterproofing of part of the roof and the consolidation of Renaissance travertine cornices that posed a risk of detachment. Last year, the Vatican had already been forced to install protective nets to prevent fragments of stone from falling onto walkways.
The Governor of Vatican City State, Sister Raffaella Petrini, has personally followed much of the process. Various sources place her inspecting the works on-site and even reviewing measurements. After all, this is not just any residence. The papal apartment carries evident symbolic weight in the life of the Church: it is a place of governance, representation, and also a visual reference point for St. Peter’s Square, especially from the window from which the Pontiff appears for the Sunday Angelus.
When Leo XIV was able to visit the apartment after the conclave last May, the state of abandonment was, apparently, hard to conceal. There were damp spots, leaks, outdated plumbing, electrical wiring that needed to be redone, and numerous elements awaiting restoration. It was not a simple tune-up, but a thorough intervention in a historic building that had gone too long without the use for which it was intended.
For months, from one of the areas overlooking Belvedere Square, workers have been seen constantly entering and exiting via the scaffolding erected for the restoration. The final result, according to reports published in Italy, adheres to a criterion of sobriety and functionality, without sacrificing the dignity of the place.
Leo XIV will not live alone in the apartment. It is planned that he will be accompanied by his two secretaries, the Italian Marco Billeri and the Peruvian Iván Rimacuya, a priest of his utmost trust from the period before his election. Several nuns will also be part of the household, in charge of domestic care, wardrobe maintenance, and kitchen service.
One of the main novelties introduced in the renovation affects the upper part of the apartment, in the area of the so-called soffittoni, a spacious bright attic that has been rehabilitated to house the bedrooms, corresponding services, and a small private chapel. Right there, a space has also been set aside for physical exercise, with Technogym equipment donated by a benefactor. The detail is not irrelevant: before being elected Pope, Prevost maintained the habit of training several times a week, a routine that is now harder to keep outside the pontifical residence.
On the main floor, however, the structure has remained essentially intact. The office and library continue to be the nucleus of work and reception, and in fact some meetings are already held there. The return of the papal residence to the Apostolic Palace represents, in any case, more than just a simple logistical change. It has an institutional and also ecclesial reading.
Francis renounced inhabiting the apartment from the outset and preferred to settle in Casa Santa Marta, presenting that decision as a gesture of austerity. Over time, however, that provisional solution expanded de facto due to work, security, and health demands. According to the same journalistic reports, the occupation ended up extending to much of the floor, and maintenance costs reached very high figures.
Leo XIV would have wanted, from the very first moment, to return things to their traditional course. After the conclave, he expressed his intention to return to the pontifical apartment, restoring to the Apostolic Palace a function that had been in abeyance since 2013. While the works were being finalized, the Pope has resided in the Palace of the Holy Office. Now, with the renovation completed, the return seems imminent.
If there is no last-minute delay, the light of the pontifical apartment will turn on again at night in the coming days, an image that in Rome has always held a value far beyond the domestic.