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The Papal Apartments are a collection of rooms, both private and state, located on the top floor of the Apostolic Palace, which have served since the 17th century as the religious residence of the Pope as pontiff of the Catholic Church. Prior to 1870, the Pope's official secular residence as sovereign of the Papal States was the Quirinal Palace, now the official residence of the president of Italy.

Contents 1 Content of the Papal Apartments 2 Furnishings 3 Renovation of 2005 4 Deaths 5 Summer residence 6 Source

The Papal Apartments have seven large rooms plus a private chapel, medical suite, an office for the Papal Secretary, a roof garden and staff quarters for the nuns who run the Papal Household. It is from the window loggia of the apartment's study that the pope greets pilgrims to St Peter's Square.

The rooms were originally highly decorated with rich ornate furnishings. However, following the Second Vatican Council, Pope Paul VI, who as a young bishop had once suggested that popes should live in more modest rooms in the Lateran Palace away from the Papal Court, had the private rooms in the Vatican Apartments stripped of all ornate decor, preferring what he viewed as a form of monastic simplicity. He also redesigned the private chapel. However the latter redesign was criticized in some quarters, as excessively representative of architectural designs fashionable in the 1970s but which are no longer popular or liked.

The Papal Apartments are customarily renovated with each new Pontificate, designed according to the preferences of the newly-elected popes.

The Papal Apartments were renovated in 2005, following the death of Pope John Paul II. In the renovations a library was added to accommodate the 20,000 books of Pope Benedict XVI. The three month long project included upgrading electrical wiring, plumbing, as well as cosmetic upgrades, such as wallpaper and furnishings.

Most recent popes have died in the Papal Apartments. Of the last four popes, three of them — John XXIII, John Paul I and John Paul II — all died in the Papal Apartments. Paul VI died at Castel Gandolfo.

The pope is in official residence from October to June of each year. From July to September the Pope is officially in residence at Castel Gandolfo.

• British Broadcasting Corporation
• Catholic News Service