Pope Leo’s visit to summer palace prompts speculation over future plans

Pope Leo XIV has visited the papal summer palace south of Rome, prompting speculation about whether he intends to use it as a retreat from the heat or maintain it as a museum and environmental centre, following in Pope Francis’ example.

Leo toured Borgo Laudato Si, an educational sustainability project inspired by Francis’ 2015 environmental encyclical "Praised Be", according to the Vatican.

The centre is situated in the gardens of the Vatican’s Castel Gandolfo property, located on Lake Alban in the hills south of Rome.

Pope Urban VIII originally constructed the palace in 1624 as a refuge for popes from the intense Roman summers.

Subsequent pontificates expanded it to its current size of 55 hectares (136 acres), surpassing even Vatican City in area.

Popes past used it regularly in summer, and Pope Benedict XVI famously closed out his papacy there on 28 February, 2013.

But Francis, a homebody who never took a proper vacation during his 12-year pontificate, decided to remain in Rome during summer.

In 2014 he decided to open Castel Gandolfo’s gardens to the public, and later turned part of the palazzo itself into a museum, in part to help offset the economic downturn the town experienced with no popes holding weekly Sunday prayers there in summer.

Leo, a former missionary priest who spent the bulk of his priesthood in Peru, has not said where he will live full-time in Rome, much less whether he will use the palace as a summer getaway.

Pope Leo declared himself a Roman on Sunday as he completed the final ceremonial steps cementing his role as the bishop of Rome.

The first American pope was formally taking possession of two papal basilicas in the Eternal City, a formality that serves to ceremonially introduce Leo to his Roman flock.

One of the many titles that Leo assumed when he was elected on 8 May was bishop of Rome.

Given his responsibilities running the 1.4-billion strong universal Catholic Church, popes delegate the day-to-day governance of running of the diocese of Roman to a vicar.

Additional reporting from AP