10 Creepiest Things Hidden In The Vatican

Hi, it's Katrina! 10. The Vatican Necropolis Hiding underneath what is arguably the most famous basilica in the world is a genuine city of the dead. This ghoulish necropolis is located directly underneath Vatican City's St. Peter's Basilica. Above ground is a world of wonder, a structure filled with beautiful artwork, fascinating frescoes, and hundreds of years of history. But five stories beneath it, hidden down in the darkness underground, is a ruin that dates back to the original founding of the Roman Empire. The altar at St. Peter's is at the apex of all of this history. The altar is stacked upon 2,000 years of bones, with the bodies of the dead hidden way underneath it. Many of the bodies buried underneath the basilica aren't even from Christians or Catholics. The oldest burial ground dates back to the 1st century AD and was used for pagans. Above that is yet another level of burials from the 5th century. This one is a bit more interesting because it's a mix of both pagans and Christians, a mausoleum from a time when the pagans of Europe were slowly converting to Catholicism. These two levels alone account for roughly 90% of the time the Roman Empire was in power, between the years 27 BC and 476 AD. Even though St. Peter's Basilica is what everyone knows and what the hill is famous for, it was a sacred place for a very long time. In another surprising twist, there is a hidden church buried underneath the floor of the basilica, and above that a more recent church from the 12th century. St. Peter's Basilica is really just the newest addition here, built over so much older history. 9. The Death of Pope John Paul I In September 1978, Pope John Paul I died suddenly and without warning. His death came just 33 days after he was elected to the station of the Holy See. What was unusual at the time was that contradictory reports came out regarding the circumstances of his unexpected demise. Apparently there had been anomalies with the death certificate, and to this day nobody is entirely sure what happened to one of the shortest-lived popes in the church's history. What we do have are a lot of conspiracy theories, any of which could be the actual truth. The only problem is that we don't have enough evidence to say which one is correct. There is a theory regarding the Vatican Bank, and that those in charge of that particular wing of the Vatican were wildly corrupt, and worried that Pope John Paul I was going to bring the hammer down. They allegedly murdered him to keep their finances safe. The corruption is real and documented. We know that the head of the Vatican's Institute for Works of Religion, one of the most powerful financial institutions in the world, was up to his neck in corruption. His name was Bishop Paul Marcinkus, and he was indicted in 1982 for being an accessory to the collapse of Banco Ambrosiano and losing roughly $3.5 billion. We also know that one of the bishop's accomplices was a man named Roberto Calvi, who was a member of the illegal Italian Masonic Lodge. He was found dead in London in 1982, just weeks before his corruption went public. His death was ruled as self-inflicted, but there are plenty of conspiracy theories around that as well. The takeaway here is that looking at the pope's death from an outside angle, it really seems that the pope was killed to protect the 8. The Vatican Obelisk Located in the very center of St. Peter's Square in Vatican City is an ancient monument called the Vatican Obelisk. Most people wouldn't be able to tell you what it is, but pretty much everyone would recognize it if they saw a picture of the square. It's the massive pillar right in the very center of the plaza that looks like a giant Egyptian obelisk from thousands of years ago. This monument is thousands of years old, and it is actually Egyptian. The obelisk was stolen from the Egyptian city of Heliopolis during the brutal reign of one of the most infamous Roman emperors in history, Caligula. But the history behind the obelisk is even more sinister than that. After the Romans built a specially designed ship to transport the obelisk from Egypt to Rome, it was used for the execution of Christians. The pillar stood in the circus of Gaius and Nero during the time that St. Peter was crucified. Romans would bring Christians to the base of this very structure and then brutally execute them. After the circus was abandoned, Vatican Hill became a necropolis. And in the Middle Ages, the obelisk was still standing in the same place with the blood of Christians splattered around its base. It was only in 1586 that the monument was finally moved from its original position and placed in the center of the piazza. 7. St. Peter's Bones A decade ago, the Vatican put on display for the first time in history the box which they believed to contain the ancient bones of St. Peter, the Apostle and the first Bishop of Rome. It was Pope Francis's doing, the 266th Bishop of Rome. This was an extremely big deal at the time because prior to 2013, no pope in history had ever said definitively that the eight pieces of bone hidden underneath St. Peter's Basilica were indeed those of St. Peter himself. The bones weren't even discovered until 1939, deep inside the grottos beneath the Basilica, which is basically a five-story labyrinth of 2,000 years of history. All these years later, there is still no definitive way to say if these bones ever belonged to the Apostle Peter. In 1968, Pope Paul VI simply said the connection was convincing, but couldn't give any actual evidence to back up the claim. And in 2013, the Vatican threw all discretion out the window and decided to just run with it. But honestly, we don't know whose bones they have in that old chest. Author Bruno Bartolini, who wrote The Ears of the Vatican, said that no pope ever allowed any scientist to study the bones, probably because they don't want to know, and also because there are documents hidden in the Vatican that say there is a 1,000-year-old curse on the tomb of St. Peter. Anyone who opens it will suffer from the worst possible misfortune. 6. The Pope Prisoners For about 60 years, not a single pope left Vatican City. It was one of the weirdest times in the Vatican's history, which saw each pope become a prisoner of their own little kingdom. It had been a long time in the making, and it finally came into effect on May 13, 1871. The Italian Law of Guarantees was the Kingdom of Italy's attempt at solving their pope problem. They hated that the pope had so much influence and power over the people, and so the law was aimed at forcing the Holy See to be an ordinary subject of Italy and not a sovereign. They promised to treat the pope with similar honors that they would give to a king, but he was to be under strict Italian law. In response, five popes locked themselves inside the Palace of the Vatican and didn't leave, starting with Pope Pius IX, who died in 1878. The pope was so furious that he excommunicated the King of Italy, basically sentencing him to a lifetime in hell. It ended with Pope Pius XI, who eventually worked out a new deal with Benito Mussolini in 1929. They decided that Vatican City would be its very own country, which it still is today. 5. The Black Magic Grimoire The Black Magic Grimoire is exactly what it sounds like. It's an ancient book of black magic that's been dated back anywhere from 1421 to 1521. However, no historian has ever agreed on when the first edition was published. Expert Owen Davies says it was 1702 when the first edition was made available, but other, more mainstream scholars suggest it was written in the 19th century as a kind of hoax. Anything we know about the Black Magic Grimoire, also known as the Grand Grimoire, is vague at best. The introductory chapter was likely written by a man named Antonio Veniziana del Rabbina, and he got much of his information from the original writings of the King Solomon. Many of the black magic spells in the book are variations of the Key of Solomon or the Red Dragon. So what does a book on black magic have to do with the Vatican? Rumor has it that an original copy is secured somewhere inside their archives. We don't know if any of it is true, but that's what some sources say. And considering the Vatican archives are home to pretty much every relevant religious text in the world, it wouldn't be a big surprise. It makes sense that they would keep a secret book hidden that can supposedly summon Lucifer and give one the ability to make a deal with the devil. 4. Jesus' Death Certificate The Shroud of Turin is a small piece of linen cloth that appears to show the imprint of the face of Jesus Christ. It looks kind of like a negative from a roll of film. Religious scholars believe the shroud was wrapped around the body of Christ after his death, which is why his face was left imprinted on it. The shroud was first mentioned in 1354 and quickly became one of the most legendary religious artifacts in the world. It was kept inside the Royal Chapel at the Cathedral of Turin in northern Italy ever since 1578. But the truth of the shroud is quite controversial. In 1988, tests proved it came from the Middle Ages, about 1,200 years after Christ's recorded death. But recently, Barbara Frail, a researcher with the Vatican's Secret Archives, says that traces of writing were found on the shroud, which has turned it into a kind of death certificate. Barbara says the fragments of words discovered on the shroud were written in Greek, Hebrew, and Latin, and say something like, this shroud was placed over Jesus of Nazareth. This is information coming straight from somebody who works in the Vatican. It's now believed that this mysterious piece of linen was used by a clerk following Jesus' execution. His name was written on it in many different languages, then laid around his body before he was buried. Either it's real, and this really is Jesus Christ's actual death certificate, a legitimate document of death, or the Vatican is just telling stories. What do you think? 3. The Pope Escape Tunnels The Pasetto di Borgo looks like any other old stone fortification in Vatican City. It runs 2,600 feet straight from the city to the Castel Sant'Angelo, and most people don't know what in the world it even is. This stone fortification was once a secret passageway used for popes to escape from harm. The passage, which from the outside honestly just looks like an ordinary wall, was constructed starting in 850 AD at the behest of Pope Nicholas III, but it wasn't finished for roughly 650 years until the reign of Pope Alexander VI in 1492. He was famous for corruption and nepotism, using his position and money to take care of his illegitimate children. Anyway, he finished the passageway just in time. Pope Alexander used his newly completed escape tunnel to escape when the French invaded two years later. All that effort really didn't amount to much, with only a handful of popes ever needing it. The last flight was in 1527, when Pope Clement VII had to escape the mutinous troops from the Holy Roman Emperor's Imperial Army. The troops had turned against Charles V and marched on Rome, and Clement VII was one of the few high-level people to escape, all thanks to his sneaky tunnel. In 2000, as a way to honor the Roman Catholic Church's great jubilee year, the Pasetto was refurbished. In recent years, the church has opened the tunnels to visitors for a restricted amount of time during each summer. 2. Lucifer There are some who say that hidden in the bowels of the Vatican is proof that the devil exists. These are the same people who believe the Vatican is holding evidence of extraterrestrials. And in another puzzling conspiracy theory, there are people out there who believe the entire Catholic Church, all of Vatican City, and the Pope himself are controlled by Lucifer, all of them puppets of the devil. But this is all just wild conspiracy theory speculation. It's true that we don't know if the devil exists. The only church that has a devil inside of it is the Holy Trinity Church in Westminster. The church was built specifically to celebrate the defeat of Napoleon. Lucifer's portrayal lives inside this church in the United Kingdom, but it's not what you think. The devil was put here by a local artist, a man named Paul Friar, who created a grotesque statue of Lucifer in wax, with wings made of actual feathers, caught up in power cables. It's one of the creepiest things in any church, especially one that's been in use for over a century, although it hasn't been used as a place of worship since the 1930s. But of course, it's just an artist's disturbing work, not proof that the devil is running the Vatican. 1. The Resurrection Speaking of creepy sculptures, there is an extremely disturbing sculpture that's actually inside the Vatican. It's called the Resurrection, and it was modeled in 1977 out of bronze and copper by an artist named Pericle Fazzini. It's about 66 feet long and 23 feet tall, and is the current backdrop for the stage in the Vatican's Paul VI audience hall. The audience hall is the source of quite a few conspiracy theories, almost all of them caused by the oddly horrific sculpture rising above the head of the frail old pope. Even though the sculpture is meant to depict the resurrection of Christ, it looks like a bunch of melted snakes all tied together with some kind of demon rising from a reactive black goo. Mr. Fazzini must have gotten his inspiration from some horror movie. The hall itself is where the pope holds all his weekly meetings when the weather isn't good enough to be in St. Peter's Square. The sculpture, believe it or not, is actually supposed to instill a kind of shock in people when they see it for the first time. It has a prominent place in the hall because the sculptor wanted to remind all the pope's audience that as Christians, they shouldn't be afraid of what's to come when Jesus Christ is resurrected. Instead, they should accept the great cataclysm that will be upon them and rejoice in the resurrection, even if the world is thrown into a horrifying maelstrom of chaos and death. Thanks for watching! What do you think is the creepiest part about the Vatican? 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