VATICAN CITY (AP) – The Sistine Chapel reopened to public view last week for the first time since the coronavirus closed in November, but for Gianni Crea, the doors of Michelangelo’s magnificent frescoes have never been closed.
Crea is the “harpsichord” of the Vatican Museums, the main key holder whose service begins every morning at 5 in the morning, opening the doors and turning on the lights through 7 kilometers (4 1/2 miles) of one of the largest collections in the world. . of art and antiques.
The Associated Press watched Crea in his rounds on the first day the museum reopened to the public, joining him before dawn in the “bunker” on the ground floor, where the 2,797 keys to the Vatican’s treasures are kept in wall safes overnight. As the keys hung and sprang from the huge keys he wore around his wrist, Crea made his way through the Map Gallery, passing the famous marble statue “Laocoön and His Sons” and finally to the Sistine Chapel.
There, at a tiny wooden door, Crea pulled a white envelope from her suit pocket, tore it open, and pulled out a small silver brass key.
Using a small flashlight to guide his way, he slipped the key into the keyhole, turned it slightly, and opened the creaking door to reveal the still-dark chapel where popes are made during secret ceremonies that even draw their names— ” conclave ”from the crucial role that the keys play in them. The cardinals are essentially locked “with a key” in the Sistine Chapel and the nearby Vatican Hotel during the solemn vote for the election of a new pope.
As a result, the key to the Sistine Chapel is of particular importance and is treated with its own protocol: After the room is closed for the day the last visitor leaves, the key is put back in a new white envelope, sealed, stamped and replaced in the wall safe. the bunker, with its entrances and comings, duly recorded in a thick register book.
Crea fondly remembers the day when, three years after his 23 years of service, he was finally allowed to open the door of the Sistine Chapel alone. The privilege of the two decades since then gave him the chance to visit Michelangelo’s “Last Temptation” and the scenes of the New Testament and the Old, alone, in the empty silence of dawn.
“All the statues, all the rooms have a unique history, but naturally the Sistine Chapel always gives you a special emotion,” said Crea.
Even though the public was excluded from the Vatican museums for 88 days, Crea and his team of 10 key holders maintained their routine of opening and closing the doors, as the exhibition rooms had to be cleaned, dusted and maintained by a small army. of museum workers. The restorers took the opportunity to do maintenance work that would otherwise be impossible when the nearly 7 million annual visitors pass through museums in a normal year.
But 2020 was anything but normal. Only about 1.3 million visitors came, organizing visits around the two COVID-19 blockades in Italy. Now, in order to maintain social distance protocols, up to 400 people can be admitted every 30 minutes, with timed tickets purchased in advance online.
Crea, who confesses that she sometimes moves her own house keys, will make sure the doors are open.
“It is a unique emotion, an incredible privilege for me and my colleagues to have the opportunity to show these extraordinary works of art, which are part of our history, to visitors around the world,” he said.
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Nicole Winfield contributed.
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