Key spots for the papal election

A general view shows the crowd at St Peter’s Square after white smoke billowed from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel announcing that Catholic Church cardinals had elected a new pope during a conclave on March 13, 2013 at the Vatican. FILE PHOTO/Agence France-Presse

VATICAN CITY — From the Sistine Chapel to St Peter’s Square, the locations where the election of Francis’s successor will play out in the coming days are part of a priceless cultural heritage.

Here are descriptions of the main spots to watch, starting with the residence where dozens of cardinals from all over the world will move into in the next couple of weeks and stay until they have elected a new pope.

Santa Marta guesthouse

A building completed in the 1990s just behind St Peter’s Basilica, this is where the cardinal electors stay during the conclave.

In centuries past, the cardinals slept in corridors and rooms of the Apostolic Palace itself. Their new lodgings include en-suite bathrooms and a hotel-style room service.

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Every morning during the conclave the cardinals will take minibuses with blacked-out windows to the Sistine Chapel.

St Peter’s Basilica

Cardinals will celebrate a special mass in this landmark of Roman Catholicism before the start of the conclave.

Following the mass, the Princes of the Church will walk in procession to the Sistine Chapel singing the hymn “Veni Creator Spiritus” (“Come Creator Spirit”) in Latin to invoke the Holy Spirit.

The basilica, one of the largest churches in the world, is a jewel of Renaissance architecture and contains the tomb of St Peter — the first pope.

Sistine Chapel

Situated inside the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican, this 15th-century chapel is world renowned for its spectacular frescoes by Michelangelo.

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A special stove has been installed in the chapel where the cardinals’ ballots are burnt after each vote during the conclave until a new pope is found.

Black smoke indicates that the required majority for a new pope has not been found, white smoke means that there is a new leader of the Catholic world. The color of the smoke is changed using chemicals.

St Peter’s Square

Architect Gian Lorenzo Bernini in the 17th century designed the famous Vatican plaza, which has a 4,000-year-old Egyptian obelisk in the middle.

The famous marble colonnades — four columns deep — are arranged in an elliptical shape. The square can fit tens of thousands of people.

The new pope will appear to the world for the first time on the main balcony of the basilica’s facade, to a cry of “Habemus Papam!” (“We have a Pope!”). He will then deliver his first blessing.