Besides its masterpieces by Michelangelo, the Sistine Chapel is undergoing a makeover, involving the installation of a stove for burning secret votes and a chimney which will billow smoke to announce to the world that the Catholic Church has a new pope.
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Work is in full swing inside the Apostolic Palace to equip the 13th-century chapel for the vote to elect Pope Francis’s successor, according to a video released on Saturday by the Vatican press office.
The nearly five-minute video shows builders laying beams on scaffolding to build a raised wooden floor, before setting up large tables for the use of the 133 cardinal electors casting their votes in the conclave.
Other builders are seen installing the heavy stove, where the ballots are burned, in a corner of the chapel.
The video, dated Friday, also shows firefighters climbing onto the chapel’s tiled roof to secure the chimney flue.
Smoke from the flue – eagerly watched for in St Peter’s Square below – will be black if no candidate has secured a two-thirds majority, or white if the church has a new pontiff.
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