UNESCO supports preliminary project for new Swiss Guard barracks

Pope Francis and a member of the Swiss Guard at the Vatican Keystone / Maurizio Brambatti Bt

The plans to renovate the barracks of the Pontifical Swiss Guard in the Vatican have cleared a significant hurdle.

The advisory bodies of UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, have given the green light for the preliminary project to be developed into a construction project.

The expert report for the attention UNESCO is an important milestone on the way to realising the project for the new barracks, said Doris Leuthard, president of the patronage committee, and Jean-Pierre Roth, president of the foundation board, to the media on Thursday.

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It is a very favourable report in which some points of the preliminary project have been clarified, Leuthard said. Detailed planning for the project can now begin in 2024. Construction work is scheduled to begin in early 2026.

Just under CHF1.5 million still missing

According to the figures announced on Thursday, CHF48.5 million ($55.3 million) have been donated for the CHF50 million project so far. There is still a shortfall of just under CHF1.5 million. Leuthard emphasised that the volume of donations shows the palpable enthusiasm for the project.

As the Vatican is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site, every major property project on Vatican City soil must undergo an expert review in order to maintain this classification.

In their report, the experts commissioned by UNESCO stated that the character of the current barracks building is outdated. There are large differences in height, impractical connections and narrow rooms without individual sanitary facilities.

The present project was assessed favourably overall. However, certain clarifications were requested. The façade of the current barracks should be restored and preserved.

The barracks will be detached from the medieval Passetto di Borgo to better emphasise it. This will lead to a reduction in the building volume. For this reason, double rooms are now provided for the recruits and single rooms only for the halberdiers. A memorial fountain in the courtyard of honour, which has blocked an old pilgrimage route since 1927, is to be relocated.

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