VATICAN CITY (AP) – The Sistine Chapel was reopened to the public last week for the first time since the closure of the coronavirus in November, but for Gianni Crea, the doors to Michelangelo’s magnificent frescoes have never really been closed.
Crea is the “clavigero” of the Vatican Museums, the main keeper of the keys whose work begins every morning at 5 am, opening the doors and turning on the lights for 7 kilometers (4 1/2 miles) from one of the largest collections in the world. art and antiques.
The Associated Press accompanied Crea on his rounds on the first day the museum was reopened to the public, joining him before dawn in the bunker downstairs, where the 2,797 Vatican treasure keys are kept in vaults during at night. While the keys dangled and clinked on giant key chains that he wears on his wrist, Crea led his way through the Gallery of Maps, past the famous marble statue “Laocoön and His Sons” and finally to the Sistine Chapel.
There, at a small wooden door, Crea took a white envelope out of his suit pocket, tore it open and pulled out a small silver brass key.
Using a small flashlight to guide his way, he put the key in the keyhole, turned it gently and opened the door with a creak to reveal the still-darkened chapel where popes are made during secret ceremonies that bear their own name – “Conclave” – the crucial role that the keys play in them. Cardinals are essentially locked “with a key” in the Sistine Chapel and in the neighboring Vatican hotel during the solemn vote to elect a new pope.
As a result, the Sistine Chapel key is of particular importance and is treated with its own protocol: after the room is closed for the day of the last visitor’s departure, the key is placed back in a new white, sealed, stamped envelope. and replaced in the bunker wall safe, with its comings and goings duly noted in a thick record book.
Crea remembers fondly the day when, three years after his 23 years of service, he was finally allowed to open the Sistine Chapel door alone. The privilege for the next two decades gave him the chance to visit Michelangelo’s “Last Temptation” and the New and Old Testament scenes alone, in the empty stillness of dawn.
“All the statues, all the rooms have a unique history, but, of course, the Sistine Chapel always gives a special emotion,” said Crea.
Although the public stayed out of the Vatican Museums for 88 days, Crea and her team of 10 key keepers maintained their routine of opening and closing doors, as the showrooms had to be cleaned, dusted and maintained by a small army museum workers. The restorers took the opportunity to carry out maintenance work that would otherwise be impossible when the approximately 7 million annual visitors pass through museums during a normal year.
But 2020 was anything but normal. Only about 1.3 million visitors attended, organizing visits around Italy’s two COVID-19 feedlots. Now, 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 loses her house keys, will make sure the doors are open for them.
“It is a unique emotion, an incredible privilege for me and my colleagues to be able to show these extraordinary works of art, which are part of our history, to visitors from all over the world,” he said.
___
Nicole Winfield contributed.
___
Follow the AP’s pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/coronavirus-pandemic.