The Gardens of Vatican City, also known as the Vatican Gardens, are urban gardens and parks which Pope Francis opened to the public in 2014. Owned by the papacy, the gardens date back to medieval times during the Renaissance and Baroque era. Spread over nearly 23 hectares, about half of the Vatican City in area, the sprawling grounds are decorated with fountains and statues set among flower beds, topiaries, and green lawns. The gardens are popular among Marian devotees as in the gardens are eighteen statues and images of the Blessed Virgin Mary that are venerated worldwide and enshrined by Pontifical decree.

Created in May 2023 in collaboration with the Vatican Museums, the “May with Mary” pilgrimage is now offered which includes 10 stops at some of the most popular images and statues of the Madonna in the Gardens, all replicas or miniatures of actual sanctuaries across the world. Offered every Wednesday and Saturday, the tour led by sisters of the Missionaries of Divine Revelation allows pilgrims to immerse themselves in the beauty of the Vatican Gardens by walking through the various Marian images which have all been gifted to or from popes, found throughout the Vatican’s beautiful grounds.

The Marian images enshrined in the Vatican Gardens are: Our Lady of the Watch (Italy), Our Lady of Lourdes (France), Our Lady of Guadalupe (Mexico), Our Lady of Fátima (Portugal), Santa María la Antigua (Panama), Our Lady of Częstochowa (Poland), Nuestra Señora de Luján (Argentina), La Madonna del Divino Amore (Italy), Virgen de los Treinta y Tres (Uruguay), Nuestra Señora de Caacupé (Paraguay), Nuestra Señora del Rosario de Chiquinquirá (Colombia), Virgen del Rosario (Guatemala), Santissima Virgen de El Quinche (Ecuador), Nuestra Señora de Los Angeles (Costa Rica), Nuestra Señora Reina de la Paz (El Salvador), Virgen del Carmen (Chile), Our Lady of Peñafrancia (Philippines), and Our Lady of Mercy.

The Shrine of Our Lady of Peñafrancia

During a visit to the Vatican, Mila Alvarez Magno, a devotee to Our Lady of Peñafrancia, and her husband Oswald were granted the privilege of a guided tour through the Vatican Gardens by Father Jess Dajac, Superior General of the Missionaries of Faith Congregation. Mila, who lives in Toronto, Canada, and Father Jess, who is based in the Vatican, are both from the province of Albay. One of the many remarkable sights in this pilgrim destination is the beautiful image of Our Lady of Peñafrancia, an intricate mosaic masterfully crafted by the micro mosaic artist R. Cassio of Studio Cassio of Italy. President Benigno “Noynoy” S. Aquino III was the special guest of honor during its unveiling and blessing on December 4, 2015.

Mila provided us with excerpts from a memento of her visit, a book titled “The Marian Route in the Vatican Gardens.” This short publication includes a map, concise and essential information, and prayers suggested by the Popes who venerated the images, in order to turn the tour into a devotional pilgrimage. It was dedicated to Pope Francis who aspired to turn the entire world into a green garden of hope and to Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI who visited the Vatican Gardens often to pray by the Marian shrines therein.

The publication also include a detailed description on how the exquisite image of Our Lady of Peñafrancia was made by Studio Cassio which have a 200-year family tradition of crafting religious mosaics and restoration of artwork at archaeological sites and monuments around the Vatican. (Editors’ Note: We used Microsoft’s Copilot to translate the original Italian transcript to English.)

How It Was Made

The Materials Used

The mosaic was created on a temporary clay base, employing numerous crafting techniques and types of materials to best reproduce every detail of the subject.

Enamel Tiles
Among the most important are the enamel tiles, shaped using traditional mosaic tools and used to create most of the artwork, such as the faces, part of the mantle, the cup, the table, and the blue background. These high-quality materials, in monochrome colors, were chosen from a vast variety of shades, with sample collections reaching thousands of different tones.

Gold Tiles
Gold tiles feature a very thin 18-karat gold metallic sheet with different characteristics in both color and surface texture. The colors of gold tiles can vary from white (often mistaken for silver) to natural gold, coppery hues, and even more particular shades like red or blue.
As for surfaces, they can be smooth or textured, with compact or cracked lamination. The latter does not indicate a production defect but is instead a characteristic deliberately designed to create vibrations and special effects.

Examples

• Spun Mosaic Tiles: These are particularly interesting as they can be created in infinite color shades, either mixed uniformly or irregularly, providing unique nuances depending on the desired effect. They are made by fusing high-quality enamels into filaments or slabs of various thicknesses. The cross-section of these slabs, cut to about 6-7 millimeters deep, forms the spun enamel tile.
• Gilded Brass: This consists of a brass strip of varying thicknesses (ranging from 3/10 of a millimeter to a full millimeter), coated in 22-karat gold on both external edges. Once the required length is determined, it can be easily shaped to create outlines or anything resembling gold threads.

Specific Applications

The Crown
The crown was mainly crafted using various gold colorations with a textured surface, carefully shaped to replicate the original sketch’s irregularities and three-dimensionality. Additionally, spun enamel filaments in different colors were irregularly blended to achieve the desired effect.

Gilded brass threads outline various parts of the crown, such as the globe at the top and the two curls beneath it. The central circle, adorned with Swarovski crystals and murrine glasswork, along with petal-shaped decorations on a blue background, creates a fan-like effect between pink and red gold tiles.

The Bodice
The gold tiles in gradient shades from white to copper serve as the backdrop for seven silver-colored magnolia flowers. These were made using spun mosaic tiles and white gold tiles with a textured surface for the leaves. The central magnolia flower consists of cut spun enamel tiles. Across the mantle, vine tendrils extend in two shades of spun mosaic tiles, framed by a gilded brass thread. Along these tendrils, leaves and grape clusters appear, crafted respectively in spun enamel and textured yellow gold.

Below the Virgin Mary’s face is a three-strand necklace of real pearls held by a series of white gold bands with a textured surface.

At the lower section, two cherubs in spun enamel flank the overlapping letters “A M,” made of cut white gold with a smooth surface.

The Mantle
The light fabric base, made from cut enamels, serves as the backdrop for embroidery covering much of the surface. The irregularly mixed spun enamel is undoubtedly the key element that, through its blended colors, creates the most realistic illusion of textile embroidery—whether in floral patterns or golden borders framing the two central subjects, which were crafted with different shades of textured gold.

A particularly realistic effect is also achieved with the lower fringes, created from irregularly mixed spun enamels in yellow tones, interwoven with gold threads to create reflections and simulate movement.

An example of the effect created by these enamels can be seen at the lower part of the mantle, where its interior is revealed. This approach ensures that the design remains rich in colors while maintaining a soft, evanescent background effect.

The Cup
The cup, notable for its realism, was created using cut enamels, primarily placed in the central outline, with spun enamel defining its contour and both textured and smooth white gold for the leaves.

The twelve magnolia flowers bordering the cup’s upper section each feature a natural pearl at the center of their blossoms, set within petals made of irregularly mixed spun enamels. Their external leaves are crafted from textured white gold.

The Table
The table was entirely made from cut enamels, except for the light blue inscription and the lower fringe. The crosses on the vertical drapery, unlike the rest of the mosaic, were crafted in natural marbles to make them stand out within a predominantly monochrome composition.

The irregularly mixed spun enamels used for the inscription and fringe were specifically designed for the main subject—vertical streaks for the inscription and crochet-like craftsmanship for the fringe.

The Halo
The halo was created from a graphic design replicating the original sketch. This allowed for the precise laser cutting of a 5-millimeter-thick stainless-steel sheet. Once shaped, the halo underwent a galvanic process that chemically bonded a 20-micrometer layer of 22-karat gold onto the steel.

The halo, pre-prepared to hold gemstones, was filled with colored epoxy resin. This element was added to complete the artwork, and after the mosaic was applied to the panel, Swarovski crystals of various sizes were affixed.

The featured image of Our Lady of Peñafrancia in the header and the gallery of Marian images at the Vatican Gardens (credit: Bénédicte Cedergren, National Catholic Register).

Notable Marian Images in the Vatican Way