The Vatican Floreria is not only a treasury of beautiful and often unusual objects that evoke centuries of Papal history, but also – as engineer Sagretti emphasizes – a whole team of people who diligently do their work every day, and sometimes in extremely peculiar places. In the Vatican, due to the fact that the entire state is enclosed in symbolic forty-four hectares, every nook and cranny is used. At the beginning of my life behind the Bronze Gate, I was fascinated to explore various corners, until one day. Riding a bike steeply uphill in the Belvedere Tunnel, I casually noticed a tiny door embedded in the ancient walls, from under which a delicate light pierced through. On the door hung a small, almost invisible sign: “Goldsmith’s workshop”. Goldsmithery is one of those sectors that falls under the jurisdiction of engineer Sagretti.
– We have a total of forty employees. Seven people work in the office, handling formal and official matters. In addition, we have three workshops – goldsmith, upholsterer and furniture renovation studio. Three people work in the goldsmith’s factory in the Belvedere Tunnel. The renovation of the furniture takes place in the warehouse at the Courtyard of the Mint. This building has two levels: downstairs we store furniture in the storage space, and upstairs there are restaurateurs and three seamstresses. Well, and for the everyday, most arduous, because physically exhausting work we have fourteen workers who are working setting chairs, transporting furniture, preparing the interior of St. Peter’s Basilica for various smaller and larger ceremonies.
Of course, the amount of work depends largely on the “main boss”: on the character of the Pope, on the intensity of his actions and the planned calendar.
Magdalena Wolińska-Riedi “It happened in the Vatican”
Znak Publishing House. Kraków 2020
Pages: 195 – 196
