The Vatican City State Railway
The Lateran Treaty, concluded in Rome on the 11th February, 1929,between the Holy See and the Kingdom of Italy, specified in Art.6 thatItaly would provide for the construction of a railway station within theVatican City and its connection to the remainder of the Italian railwaynetwork, with a junction in the vicinity of the station of Rome StPeters (Roma - San Pietro).
The implementation of this provision was entrusted to the Directorateof New Railway Construction of the Ministry of Public Works of theKingdom of Italy. Plans were put in hand immediately, it having beenestablished at the outset that the railway should be completed withinone year from the date of the ratification of the Treaty.
The master plan for the Vatican City located the railway station andits installations in the area between the public Piazza Santa Marta andthe Governor’s Palace, where significant earthworks were needed in orderto bring the height of the ground to 38m above sea level, the same asthe concourse of St Peters station. Grafting the new branch on to theexisting line offered no difficulty, but the widening of the old stationwhere it ran into the Hill of Gelsomino and the building of the viaductwould present considerable problems.
In spite of the difficulties, more serious than one might think giventhe shortness of the railway, plans were completed with unusual rapidityand work began on 3rd April, 1929.
The first trial railway locomotive entered the Vatican in March,1932, but the ratification of the necessary Railway Convention betweenthe Holy See and Italy did not take place until 12th September, 1934 andin October, 1934 representatives of the Ministry of Public Works handedover the entire portion of the railway located within the walls of theVatican City to the representatives of the Vatican City State, and theportion in Italian territory to those of the State Railways (FS).
The first legislative provision of the Vatican City State regardingits railway is contained inLegge sulle fonti del diritto n.II of7th June, 1929 in which it was laid down that Italian legislation wouldbe observed for the railway service (art.20, c.4). The technicalmanagement and business management of the railway service at firstremained separate. According toRegolamento per gli Uffici e Servizidel Governatorato, n.XXXIII of 5th December, 1932, the technicalsector was the responsibility of the Railways and Transport Departmentof the Communications Section, reporting to the Central Office ofTechnical Services, while the movement of goods and the day to dayoperation was that of the Annona and Financial Section, reporting to theCentral Office of the Secretariat. It is to be noted that theseregulations were enacted while the railway installations were still inthe course of construction. According toModificazioni al Regolamento5 dicembre 1932 n.XXXIII per gli Uffici e Servizi del Governatorato,n.LIII of 28th December, 1934, the Transport and Railway Department wasincorporated in the Technical-Financial Section, reporting to the Officeof the Director General of Financial Services, to which the Annona andFinancial Section also reported (art.5, II, c, and art.34).
On 27th December, 1939 the Law was promulgated which gave to theGovernor of the State the legal power to set up an office for theimport, export, examination and allocation of merchandise (n.IV),followed by n.VI on the 30th of the same month. To this new Goods Officecame, amongst other things, the putting in place of the operations andformalities arising out of the Railway Convention of 20th December,1933, between the Holy See and Italy. According toLegge sul Governodella Città del Vaticano n.LI of 24th June, 1969, the Officewas turned over to the control of the General Secretariat (art.5, I, 6).On 1st April, 1977, withDecreto della Pontificia Commissione per loStato della Città del Vaticano in relazione alle attribuzionidell’Ufficio Merci n.CXXXIV the movement and operation of theVatican Railway were officially assigned to the Goods Office (alreadyexpected to manage those functions, according to an internal officedocument:Attribuzioni e funzioni dell’Ufficio Merci of 31stMarch, 1976). The official head of the Goods Office and chief executivein charge of the railway today is Dr.Ing. Gr.Uff. Daniel Dalva, Directorof General Services, reporting to the Office of the Director General ofTechnical Services of the Governor of the Vatican City State.
The Vatican City State Railway leaves the main Rome to Viterborailway line at the Viterbo end of Rome St Peters station and passesover the valley of the Gelsomino at a height of about 11 metres, alittle distance from the viaduct of the aforementioned railway. Thecrossing is accomplished by means of a masonry viaduct of 8 arches withan opening of 15.30 metres, which represents the major construction ofthe railway in Italian territory. The Gelsomino Viaduct, between theConcourse of St Peters station and the Viale Vaticano comprises 8 archesof 15.30 metres opening. The timpani above the piers are adorned withthe Lictoral Fasces and the Arms of Savoy. The viaduct is part curved,part straight, following the Via Gregorio VII. The arches are separatedinto two groups of 4, separated by an abutment. The piers rise 6.85metres from street level and the keystones of the arches are 9.90 metresabove the ground. The viaduct is 143.12 metres long between the extremeabutments and 9.50 metres wide between the inner faces of the parapets.The viaduct is constructed entirely of masonry, faced with Travertineand brick.
With its last arch, the viaduct passes over the Via Aurelia and,about 70 metres from the end of the viaduct, it passes through the wallsof the Vatican by a wide arch equipped with a sliding iron gate andenters the Vatican City State to where, a few tens of metres away, in asupremely delightful position among gardens and flower-beds, rises thebuilding of the Vatican railway station. The air is dominated by thedome of St Peters, which itself is close by. Leaving the stationbuilding by the entrance porch and standing in the square outside, itleaves no room for wonder that His Holiness Pius XI, visiting the worksin the course of their completion and turning to look at the monument,should exclaim “This is the most beautiful station in the World!...” Theconcourse of the station with its rails and associated installations arelaid in a wide but shallow trench not requiring large retaining walls soas not to interfere with the beauty of the landscape, strewn around withgreen gardens that make a restful and poetic setting for the otherbuildings of the Vatican City State, among them the Governor’sPalace.
As has been said, the Viale Vaticano was interrupted by the line, itnot being technically possible to arrange for the road to pass over orunder the railway. Therefore, two stairways were constructed beside theend walls of the viaduct, to allow quicker pedestrian access between theViale and the Via Aurelia. The higher part of the Viale was alsoconnected to the lower part by means of a short link. Two other roadsthat, with the Via Aurelia, ran through the valley of the Gelsomino,namely the Via delle Cave and the Via del Gelsomino, were alsointerrupted, and diverted to join the Via Aurelia.
From the centre of the passenger building of Rome St Peters station,the railway runs straight for 299.65 metres. It then turns to the righton a curve with radius 250 metres, which it follows approximately to thecentre of the Gelsomino viaduct. After this ensues a straight section of81.29 metres, then a polycentric curve of length 218.43 metres, formedof three successive arcs: the first section, with a radius of 201.80metres, passes through the Entrance Gateway of the Vatican City State;the second section, with a radius of 400 metres, continues to the centreof the Vatican station building; the third section has a radius of240.60 metres. After this, the line returns to being straight for 112.30metres, to its end in a tunnel.
Therefore, from the centre of the passenger building of Rome StPeters station, as described in the preceding paragraph, to the end ofthe tunnel in the Vatican, three straights and two curves areencountered, of total length 862.78 metres. If one adds to this thedistance of 408.73 metres between the centre of Rome St Peters and theend of the headshunt in the direction of Rome Trastevere, the totallength obtained between the extremes of movement on the railway is1270.41 metres. If, instead, one restricts the measure of distance tothat between the centre of Rome St Peters station and the centre of theVatican station, the length is 624.25 metres.
From the point of view of height, the master plan specified analtitude of 38 metres, so that the section of the railway between thetwo stations is exactly level. However, on the section beyond theconcourse of Rome St Peters in the direction of Rome Trastevere for adistance of 253.63 meters, and also on the section in the Vatican Citybeyond the centre of the station building for a distance of 226.78metres, light gradients were introduced, in the former case tocorrespond with that of the existing Rome to Viterbo line and in thelatter in order to facilitate water drainage from the tunnel and thecutting leading to it.
For the equipment of the line, rails with a weight of 36 kg/m wereadopted, laid on 12 sleepers per 9 metre length or 16 sleepers per 12metre length. Pointwork in the Vatican station is hand operated. Rome StPeters station and the Vatican station are connected by telephone andtelegraph.
The Entrance Gateway to the Vatican City State consists of an archpierced through the walls of the Vatican, equipped with a sliding irongate of two leaves. The arch, with an opening of 16.70 metres, isexecuted in small, sand-filled bricks and Travertine, and the keystonesare decorated with two large Coats of Arms of His Holiness Pius XI. Eachleaf of the gate is constructed of a solid iron frame clad on both sideswith a sheet of 8mm in thickness, decorated with a pattern of largeteeth. They slide into recesses of the arch pierced in the walls of theVatican by means of a small railway bogie front and rear, running on aline of 48cm gauge, and can be manoeuvred by hand or by motor. Theduration of the movement turns out to be about one minute. The totalweight of the hardware is 35.5 tonnes. The bell indicating the start ofa movement has been supplemented by a television camera.
From a strictly railway point of view, the equipment of the stationis very simple, given its special nature. The concourse of the VaticanStation is served by two inteconnecting railway lines, one of which islocated alongside the front platform, which is 10 metres wide and partlycovered by a canopy. Beyond the track beside the passenger platform anda runround loop parallel to it, are two short sections of line for goodsservice, one able to take four wagons at a loading platform, the otherserving as a shunting lead and giving access to the headshunt in thetunnel. The said tunnel has a length of 96.58 metres, of which 31.48metres are double track and 65.10 metres single track. It was excavatedin compact marble and fully lined. The facade of the tunnel entrance wasconstructed of stone cut from the tunnel.
The steeply sloping strata where the concourse was built, not tomention the need to occupy no more space than was strictly necessary,led to the adoption of retaining walls, which start from and rise alongthe length of the concourse. A type of wall with a slope of the externalface of 30 centimetres for every metre of height was adopted, except fora section of about 27 metres executed with a vertical wall, topped witha small terrace with an elegant Travertine balustrade, facing the frontof the station building.
A little over 20 metres from the Entrance Gateway to the VaticanCity, rises the sober passenger building designed to the plan of themaster of appealing architecture, Ing. Gr.Uff. Giuseppe Momo,confidential architect to His Holiness Pius XI, and in charge of thedirection of the artistic and architectural parts of the work.
This building, opened in 1933, is 61 metres long by 21.50 metreswide. The central part is 16.85 metres high and the two lateral wings5.95 metres. A short canopy in reinforced concrete has been constructedfrom the central part on the building on the side facing the railway. Anextension has been constructed from the side facing the external square,to allow cars to stop under cover, in front of the entrance door to thestation hall.
The tiny Vatican railway station, in anticipation of its having towelcome Popes and VIPs, was furnished with a certain sumptuousness anddecorated in marble. In the central part of the building is a greathall, with an elegant paved floor and a rich pediment in colouredmarble; it has a ceiling encased in stucco, and is adorned with eightmonolithic columns executed in Cipollino Versilia green marble from thequarries near Serravezza. All the marbles in the hall are modern andcame from Italian quarries. The eight green columns were obtained from asingle block of marble carved out of the mountainside. As their functionis purely decorative and not structural, they were put into positionafter the huge architraves of reinforced concrete that they appear tosupport. To either side of the great hall are found rooms forsupervision and operations management.
The exterior of the building is clad entirely in Travertine (exceptfor the upper part of the railway side of the building, above thecanopy, which is covered with simulated Travertine) and enriched withseveral sculptures, the work of Professor Eduardo Rubino. These consistof a Coat of Arms of His Holiness Pius XI, supported by two figuresrepresenting Thought and Action, placed above the extension towards theexternal square; and two large bas reliefs inspired by biblical storiesof travel, placed low down to either side, and intended to symbolise themost ancient and the most modern means of transport for the propagationof the faith, that is to say the boat of St Peter in recollection of hismiraculous draught of fish, and the episode of the Prophet Elias in hisfiery chariot, symbolising the other mode of transport, that of air.
Much has been written on the potential functions and usefulness ofthe Vatican railway, that envisaged multitudes of travellers arrivingand departing, especially during the Jubilees and on the occasion ofgreat religious ceremonies. The Pope and visiting VIPs would have usedthe railway, and the station would be the first place that they wouldencounter. That official thought had been inclined in this direction isshown by the luxurious marble decorations of the reception rooms of thestation. TheIllustrazione Vaticana in 1932, after speaking ofthe train of Pius XI, reported that another Papal train “(...) is beingprepared for the new Vatican City railway and that this, like theexisting [train] of Pius IX, will be not only worthy of the Italianindustry, but above all of the August Personage of the Pontiff.” ThePapal train was never realised. What is more, the Vatican does notemploy any railwaymen, nor does it have any rolling stock registered toit.
Pius XI, although as a result of the reconciliation with the ItalianState in 1929, wanted a railway station in the Vatican, never did travelby train. He confined himself to the walls of the Vatican, as had hispredecessors since the taking of the Porta Pia in 1870. Instead, beforethe restoration of his temporal powers, the promoter of several railwayprojects relating to the Papal State travelled in the train of PiusXI.
The first Pontiff to use the Vatican railway station was John XXIII,on 4th October, 1962, on the occasion of his pilgrimage to Loreto andAssisi “for the more fervent invocation of heavenly aid in the imminenceof the Ecumenical Council,” in preparation for the Vatican II Councilthat was to begin a week later. The Holy Father left on his journey toLoreto and returned from Assisi with the Italian Presidential trainplaced at his disposal, a journey that was followed by many peoplethanks to Eurovision.
From Pius XI to today, the Vatican Station, for all its properidentity as a railway station, confirmed by agreement and convention,came to be associated almost exclusively with a discreet goods traffic(ten years or so ago the hall was converted into the Goods Office andsplit in two in order to accommodate a numismatic and philatelic museumon the first floor), the level of which has today reduced to nearly zerobecause traffic by rubber tyre is more convenient, faster, and morecertain, and the station has only been used occasionally for passengertrains. On 11th April, 1959, a special passenger convoy departed fromthe Vatican railway station, placed at disposal of the Vatican by thItalian Railways, for the purpose of translating the remains of Pius Xto Venice at the wish of John XXIII (the cortège travelled toTermini station, where it met that of Don Bosco who would be carried,solemnly and in procession, into St Peters Basilica). In recent yearsthe Vatican station has been used only on rare occasions by trains ofordinary passengers (for example, a train of invalids organised byUNITALSI; a group of Perugian tourists who had obtained a special trainfrom the State Railways for a visit to the Sistine Chapel; a “greentrain”; and a steam train carrying boys on a tour around Italy).
John Paul II used the Vatican railway station for the first time on8th November, 1979, for a symbolic journey aboard the Italian StateRailways train “Arlecchino”, on the occasion of the 21st “Railwaymen’sDay”, for a meeting with shunters of the State Railways at Salario(Rome), travelling via Rome St Peters, Rome Trastevere and RomeTermini.
John Paul II used the Vatican Railway again in order to reach SantaMaria of the Angels (Assisi) on a “special pilgrimage” to meet withrepresentatives of various religions in a Day of Prayer for World Peace,on 24th January, 2002, with a train of the Italian State Railways. Thusthe Pope, who has travelled millions of kilometres by air, is seated ina railway carriage leaving the station of his tiny state.
Although John Paul II has used railways several times since hiselection to the Throne of St Peter, 24th January, 2002 will be the firsttime that he has used the Vatican station to leave Rome. During hisPontificate, John Paul II has several times used trains other than fromthe Vatican: in January, 1982 in Argentina on an express Presidentialconvoy; in May, 1982 in Portugal because of bad weather; in June, 1984from Zürich to Freiburg; in September, 1984 along the St LawrenceRiver, in Canada, travelling to Montreal; in 1985 in Belgium and theNetherlands; and in February, 1986, on returning from India, from Naplesto Rome, because the airports of Rome were snowbound.
[Sources: Ministero dei Lavori Pubblicidel Regno d’Italia,La ferrovia per lo Stato della Città delVaticano, Roma, Istituto Poligrafico dello Stato, 1934, 50 pagine confotografie; G. Pini,La ferrovia della Città del Vaticano,ivi 1934; F. Zanetti,Dalle prime ferrovie dello Stato Pontificio aquella dello Stato della Città del Vaticano, inL’Illustrazione Vaticana, 3 (1932), pp. 376-378; Attività dellaSanta Sede; Acta Apostolicae Sedis; Annuario Pontificio]
