Fifty-three miles of shelving. Thirty-five thousand volumes of catalogue. Twelve centuries worth of documents. Housed in one of the most iconic bastions of religion and culture ever, the Vatican’s Secret Archives are the stuff of historical legend—but their existence is absolutely real.
Just the name invokes the mystery and pageantry of the Catholic Church, and prompts the more imaginative to come up with sinister theories about what might lie within. The archives’ indexes are not public—and are only accessible to scholars once they are 75 years old—and they are housed in a fortress-like part of the Vatican.
http://www.history.com/news/step-into-the-vaticans-secret-archives
Just the name invokes the mystery and pageantry of the Catholic Church, and prompts the more imaginative to come up with sinister theories about what might lie within. The archives’ indexes are not public—and are only accessible to scholars once they are 75 years old—and they are housed in a fortress-like part of the Vatican.
http://www.history.com/news/step-into-the-vaticans-secret-archives