By Vittoria Prisciandaro
Photo by Tommaso Ausili
Behind her, horses and riders clash. The painting by De Boulogne is a legacy of her predecessor and friend, Antonio Paolucci. “Leave it there, there will be no shortage of battles,” he told Barbara Jatta who, from January 1, 2017, was preparing to direct the Vatican Museums, the first woman since 1506, when the Museums were created by Pope Julius II. “Yes, it’s true, there is a fight, but at the same time it is a great privilege to be here.” From the window of the office on the third floor you can almost touch the dome of St. Peter’s. Paintings, photos, plants tell the story of one of the symbolic women of the Vatican, who with determination and a smile directs one of the ten most visited museums in the world. On the walls, a self-portrait by Angelika Kauffmann, the artist she has loved since her degree thesis, and then a Madonna breastfeeding, attributed to Bernardino Luini, a family photo with her husband Fabio Midulla (pediatrician at the Policlinico Umberto I) and their three children: Marco, Fabiola and Giorgio. Indoor plants, orchids, Lego figures…
32 million pilgrims are expected in Rome next year. Not all of them will come to the Vatican Museums, but some will. How are you preparing?
“It will be an important and challenging year for the entire Vatican. 2024 was a year of testing. We established a series of access rules, extended opening hours for individuals, and gave up exclusive visits. Since 2024, we have already introduced a nominative ticket, to deal with secondary ticketing by scalpers, who plague all the main Italian museums by selling tickets at very high prices. We are planning to air-condition the upper and lower galleries and are proceeding with a photovoltaic system at the entrance. We want to be ready to best welcome the many visitors who will come.”
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Read the full interview with Barbara Jatta in the issue of Credere distributed in newsstands and religious bookstores from Thursday 19 September and in parishes from Saturday 21 September. Or buy a digital copy www.edicolasanpaolo.it/scheda/credere.aspx
• This interview with Barbara Jatta is part of Wayfarers of Hopea series of dialogues with personalities from the world of the Church, culture, social commitment, entertainment and sport in preparation for the Jubilee 2025. This is a multimedia project which, in addition to the service on Believealso includes the television version of this interview which will be broadcast on Telenova (Channel 18 of digital terrestrial in Lombardy and Eastern Piedmont) on Tuesday 24 September at 10.30 pm and Wednesday 25 September at 11.00 am. The video of all the interviews is also available on the Telenova App and website (www.telenova.it).