POPE LEO XIV TO SPEND SUMMER HOLIDAYS AT CASTEL GANDOLFO

Pope Leo XIV will spend two weeks in Castel Gandolfo, the traditional summer residence of popes near Rome, the Vatican said on Tuesday.

The new head of the Catholic Church is reviving a tradition of his predecessors after a break of almost a decade and a half.

Pope Francis, who died on April 21, had decided not to do go away on a break and would remain at the Vatican all summer.

The first pope from the United States is thus once again setting himself apart from his immediate predecessor, who had cultivated a much more modest style than previous heads of the church.

Leo – whose was born Robert Francis Prevost – also intends to move back into the papal apartments in the Apostolic Palace once they have been renovated. Francis remained in the Vatican guesthouse throughout his pontificate.

According to the Vatican, Leo will stay in Castel Gandolfo July 6-20 and again in mid-August. On three Sundays, he will also recite the traditional Angelus prayer there, which normally attracts tens of thousands of people to St. Peter's Square. He has cancelled all private audiences for the month of July.

Castel Gandolfo on Lake Albano, south of Rome, served as the papal summer residence until the beginning of Francis' pontificate in 2013.

Some pontiffs spent several months a year in the complex, which consists of three villas and a large park. The Polish Pope John Paul II even had a swimming pool built there in the 1980s. His German successor, Benedict XVI, initially lived in Castel Gandolfo after his surprise resignation and often returned there later.

2025-06-17T18:17:49Z