The enchanting gardens in the shadow of St Peter’s
It is difficult to get into the Vatican Gardens, but it is well worth making the effort, says John Graham
3 July 2009

Pope Benedict XVI gives a blessing in front of the Lourdes grotto in the Vatican Gardens (Photo: CNS)

The Gardens of the Vatican
By Linda Dobbs and Kildare Dobbs
Francis Lincoln Publishers, £20

As anyone who has tried will know, gaining access to the Vatican Gardens is not always easy. My first attempt in the mid-1980s was "officially postponed" while the then US Secretary of State George Schultz made an inspection of the place, along with assorted fellow diplomats and security goons.

Immediately after that the gardens were closed for undisclosed reasons and for an indefinite period. I tried again some years later with more success.

Perhaps only the gardens of the Knights of Malta, hidden behind immensely high snecked stone walls on the Piazza Cavallieri di Malta, are more private and inaccessible. I have yet to get in there.

However, it was well worth persevering with the Vatican Gardens themselves, which are only about 45 acres but consist of a fascinating collection of fountains, grottoes and artefacts, the most recent addition being a substantial piece of the Berlin Wall, symbolising the collapse of Communism in Europe, partly initiated by Pope John Paul II in Poland, demonstrating the power of the papacy even in this modern, supposedly secular age.

This book is the first monograph on the Vatican Gardens and opens with a salute to the Dominican Fr Allen Duston OP, until recently international director of the patrons of the arts of the Vatican Museums, who performed the substantial task of fundraising for the restoration of the buildings within the gardens themselves, as well as supervising the work on buildings which date to the 15th century.

The jewel in the crown of these is Pope Paul IV's classical palace, the Casina - really a series of buildings stepping down the gentle slope of a hill, with water fountains and nymphaeum as well as the palace itself, complete with classical iconography throughout in mosaic and sculpture, including a splendid statue of Cybele on the façade, in a niche with water pools before her.

This is now the seat of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, to which eminent scholars, Catholic and non-Catholic, from all over the scientific world come together in academic fellowship.

Fr Duston also arranged for the author to complete the extensive collection of architectural plate photographs found in the book at times when the gardens are not open to the public but which would be best suited for large-format camerawork.

There is a good introductory essay on the fons et origo of the gardens, beginning in Etruscan times when the Vatican Hill was the resort of prophets or "vaticinators", hence the name, on to the development of the place as it presently appears, beginning with the huge Leonine walls under Leo IV, started in 847, parts of which still survive to this day.

The gardens are really a visible symbol of much of the history and activity of the Vatican, with the Borgia Pope Paul V building many of the larger fountains and properties as well as completing St Peter's basilica.

Following the Lateran Treaty, the gardens finally became the embodiment of the much reduced land of the Papal States, to a mile by half-mile surrounding the Vatican buildings. As well as including information on all the historic monuments and architecture, the author includes much other general information besides. There is a handsome railway station building in white limestone at the south wall, serving a double track with intersection and points.

Contrary to popular myth, it is in fact still in use and fully functional, although nowadays used only to transport goods and materials. The days of Papa Pio Nono, when the devout would kneel at the railway side as the Holy Father glided past bestowing blessings, are gone.

There are two convents within the gardens: a community of German Sisters of Christian Charity attached to the Teutonic College, and the Poor Clares' Mater Ecclesiae monastery at the north side, beside which is a substantial kitchen garden where vegetables are grown for the tables of the papal household.

When visiting there I saw two nuns sapping the dark green boswellia carterii bushes to produce that most precious of all oils, frankincense, recalling the long tradition since the medieval Pope Nicholas III of developing the gardens as a place of physic and medicine.

My own favourite feature is the Fountain of the Blessed Sacrament, a magnificent pedimented fountain with castellated towers on each side, guarded by fearsome griffons, all in warm golden sandstone, and built by Paul V.

To discuss all the aspects of the Gardens here would demand too much space, but the author has done her subject proud in this book in presenting them all in a collection of essays and excellent photographs, including all the administrative buildings, such as the Radio Tower, home to Vatican Radio and managed by the Jesuits.

Charlemagne is said to have prayed in the tiny Church of St Stephen of the Abyssinians, the oldest church in the Vatican; it was closed and clad in scaffolding when I went, so perhaps readers who visit in future will see more than me since the church is now open. They will find Ethiopian monks using the Alexandrine Rite, calling to mind the universality of the Catholic Church -_if such reminding were ever necessary.

Few of the vast numbers visiting St Peter's basilica and the attached museums will bother with the Vatican Gardens, but for those that do it will surely be an enriching experience - as well as a cooling one in the Rome heat, with all its water fountains. Linda Dobb's monograph provides a generous foretaste of what will await them.