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 Central Post Office Building The Vatican Postal Service roots are in the dust of the Italian unification. In 1870 King Emanuel's troops breached the defenses of Rome and conquered the last pieces of Roman States. With that event the Papal States ceased to exist and what had been the Papal Postal Service of the Roman States became the Italian Postal Service of the new unified government. Pope Pius IX exiled himself into the Vatican with the protection of the Leonine Walls, asserting that the temporal possessions of the Papacy had been illegal seized, and refused to use the services of the Italian Postal Service. William Wonneberger's article from the November 1955 issue of Vatican Notes describes how the Vatican papal was handled mail during these years. From 1870 to 1929 two postman, approved by the Vatican and not wearing the customary postman's uniform, would bring incoming mail to the Vatican. Outgoing papal mail from the Vatican during this time was dispatched by private messenger. Researching exactly what the Vatican looked like and how the mail was handled during the years between 1870 and 1929 is difficult. There doesn't seem to be material available. The international relevance of papal diplomacy and papal authority declined with the Popes in isolation. Visitors to the Vatican during this time period used the Italian Post Office to. Five Popes reigned during these years of isolation: Pope Pius IX (1846-1878) Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903) Pope Pius X (1903-1814) Pope Benedict XV (1914-1922) Pope Pius XI (1922-1939) The Vatican’s territorial control shifted as it went from being part of the Papal States to the establishment of Vatican City with the signing Lateran Treaties in 1929. Vatican City became a separate geographic country, and the Poste Vaticane was established. In addition to handling mail, the Poste Vaticane also took on the task of managing telegraph communications for the Vatican. Under the terms of the Lateran Treaties, the Italian Postal Service helped the Vatican Post Office begin operations. The iconic yellow postal boxes became a recognizable feature of a new country. From 1929 to 1933 the Vatican Post office was located in the Vatican Bank building. In 1933 a new Cental Post Office building was constructed by Giuseppe Momo in 1933. Giuseppe Momo (1875–1940) was an Italian architect and engineer who is best known for the Bramante Staircase in the Vatican Museums. When constructed in 1933, the Central Post Office building had only a ground floor and a basement with a three-ached facade separated by ashlar pillars. Pope Pius XI dedicated the Central Post Office building on June 28, 1933. Under Pope John XXIII the building was transformed into the 3-story building as it is seen today. Visiting the Vatican Central Post Office is not easy. It is Vatican City government building subject to strict security regulations. In addition to being the primary location for process all Vatican mail, it serves as the primary post office for Vatican residents, staff, and clergy. When approaching the Gates of Santa Anna there you will be stopped by the Swiss Guard and told that this area is not open to the public. To visit the area security clearance is required and pre-arrangements must be made in advance. After several months of e-mail correspondence with Vatican postal customer relations representatives, I asked for a face-to-face meeting since my wife, and I were planning to visit Rome for several days after completing a transatlantic cruise. Much to my surprise the request was granted. On the Monday morning May 6th, 2024 my wife and I approached St. Anna Gate and were the Swiss Guard stationed there immediately told us that we were not allowed to enter the area. After showing copies of my email confirming we were told to walk another fifteen feet and talk to a Vatican police person. Once again, emails were shown, and meeting explanation given. This time we were told to go to a small security office. Once inside the security we were asked for identification, so we presented our U.S. passports. The security person checked our passports information against, computer records, then issued us Vatican visitor passes. Our passports were retained, and we were instructed how to get to the Central Post Office building. We were told not to take any photographs without permission and to return when our meeting was over. Having passed security, we walked down the street and up the steps of the Central Post Office building. I have to admit that walking up the steps of the post office building gave me a huge sense of excitement as on previous trips to Vatican City I had not been able to get past the Swiss Guards. This trip I had actually finally been able to actually get to the Vatican Central Post Office building! We entered into the Post Office lobby and found it to be much like the other Vatican City postal locations. The lobby area is about 15 feet from the doorway to the glassed counter with a room width of 25 feet or so. I walked up to one of several windows asking to see the person I was to meet with. The postal person said they knew the person I wanted to meet with and they would probably be out in a few minutes. We should sit at the nearby writing table. We sat down and began to wait. As we began our wait, I started looking at the Post Office walls. I noticed the display cases had various postal issues for the last year or two but interestingly I had never seen many of the covers Eventually the two ladies I was scheduled to meet with came and introduced themselves: Anna Cicerchia from the Commercialiazione Filatelica e Numismatica (CFN), and Lara Mangano from the Vatican Post Office . After introductions we were invited to walk through the lobby doorway and begin touring the inner rooms of the Vatican Central Post Office building. On the right side of the post office lobby there is a doorway which leads to the various first floor work rooms of the Central Post Office Building. Turning right in this doorway leads to a small room where houses two postal historical artifacts. Here one can find an old postmark cancelling machine. This postmark cancelling machine was put into service in the mid-1930 and remained operational thru the mid-1960. Thinking about that time range one can wonder which postmarks it was used to produce. Another interesting historical artifact found in this area of the Central Post Office building is some old pneumatic tubes. Pneumatic transportation systems were first invented by William Murdoch, a Scottish chemist, inventor, and mechanical engineer, around 1799. In 1854, a English electrical engineer named Josiah Latimer Clark patented a system for moving letters or parcels between places by the pressure of air and vacuum. At one time, the Vatican had an extensive pneumatic tube system between the various building. Various documents could be sent and received from the Central Post Office building to other buildings within Vatican City. Walking down the hallway from the room with the historical artifacts there is a large workroom which appears to be used for receiving mail. As you enter their room there is a large worktable. At the other end of the room is a modern scanner for scanning incoming mail and packages. All incoming mail comes from the Italian Postal Service, postal code 00120. A left doorway of this room leads to another room which is a very interesting area where the wall is lined with postal bags hung from hooks attached to the wall. The bags form a large outbound sorting bin of various geographic locations to which the mail is designed. The bags are filled with outgoing mail and turned over to the Italian Post al Service. All Vatican City mail canceled with Vatican City postmarks and is then forwarded to the to the Italian Post Service. Walking through this area as a hallway one enters the main post office workroom. The mail post office workroom appears to be broken up into various sections with each worker having various task area, much like any open office workroom of any business. Here each postal worker is busy with their task of cancelling and sorting mail. Our visit time was relatively early in the day and although everyone was busy, it was obviously not at the most hectic time of daily activity. There was a constant noise of handstamps being applied to stacks of mail. The room was much like that of typical small city post office of an America with one major exception. The exception was to be found on the wall. The were several Christian crosses hung on the various post office walls. There was relatively modern postal equipment scattered about with older large sorting tables that obviously had been used for some time. The area had a few sorting trays scattered about. Things just remained me of my local post offices of the small towns in Texas. All of the postal workers introduced were friendly as they looked up from their work task. Exiting the post office work areas, our two guides moved us upstairs to the second floor. Stepping off the elevator to the second floor of the Vatican Central Post Office building there is a small conference room. The rest of the floor consists of various offices with a central hallway. The conference room has a small round table with historical photographs hanging on the wall. The photographs show various papal visits to the building. Three frames are of particular interest. The first frame was not a photograph but copy of the of the first telegraph sent by the Vatican Post Office to the Italian government in 1929. The second frame is a photograph of Pope Pius XI taken June 28, 1933 The third frame was of one of the Pope John Paul visit to the Central Post Office 
Vatican City Map References • William Wonneberger, Jr. "The Vatican Postal Service" Vatican Notes Volume IV, Number VII, November 1955, pages 3 - 12 •“Pnematic Tubes” Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pneumatic_tube • Fonti, Daniela “Modern Districts, Ancient Finda – Central Vatican Post Office Building”, General Guide To The Vatican City Jaca Book, First English edition, November 2012, page 296 • Leonine City - Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonine_City • Marvin Lanahan, Attempting To Photograph The Central Post Office Building |
