# Tell me about the secrets of the Vatican **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 25, 2009, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-the-secrets-of-the-vatican/487353 "2009-02-25T12:06:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Simple\_Mind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7cd45c/32.png) [@Simple\_Mind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simple_Mind)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-the-secrets-of-the-vatican/487353/1 "2009-02-25T12:06:16Z")
I just watched a movie where they showed a modern underground Mail-Railway system that is supposed to be operating under the Vatican City, is it true? and what other amazing things could be found in Vatican City which are not commonly know by the public? ---
**Author:** ![Wiltshire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ea5d25/32.png) [@Wiltshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wiltshire)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-the-secrets-of-the-vatican/487353/2 "2009-02-25T12:26:07Z")
There’s the persistent rumor about their secret porn stash, for starters. [Does the Vatican have the world’s largest pornography collection? - The Straight Dope](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/63/does-the-vatican-have-the-worlds-largest-pornography-collection) ---
**Author:** ![Simple\_Mind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7cd45c/32.png) [@Simple\_Mind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simple_Mind)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-the-secrets-of-the-vatican/487353/3 "2009-02-25T13:51:37Z")
> [@Wiltshire](#): > > There’s the persistent rumor about their secret porn stash, for starters. [Does the Vatican have the world’s largest pornography collection? - The Straight Dope](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/63/does-the-vatican-have-the-worlds-largest-pornography-collection) Considering that that post was from 82’ I would say that nowadays there are sure some larger private collections around. Anything else out there? ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-the-secrets-of-the-vatican/487353/4 "2009-02-25T14:11:16Z")
If we told you, they wouldn’t be \*secret \*anymore. Duh. ---
**Author:** ![Kizarvexius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-the-secrets-of-the-vatican/487353/5 "2009-02-25T19:40:36Z")
There’s an archaeological dig directly underneath the basilica where a set of bones believed by some to be the actual earthly remains of Saint Peter himself was discovered. ---
**Author:** ![Kizarvexius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-the-secrets-of-the-vatican/487353/6 "2009-02-25T20:51:51Z")
Though to clarify I should add that this last tidbit is not a secret (how secret could it be? I took the freaking _tour_ in 1993). Just not terribly well known. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-the-secrets-of-the-vatican/487353/7 "2009-02-25T20:59:25Z")
I’d tell you, but then I’d have to Bless you. ---
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-the-secrets-of-the-vatican/487353/8 "2009-02-25T23:27:52Z")
> [@Simple\_Mind](#): > > I just watched a movie where they showed a modern underground Mail-Railway system that is supposed to be operating under the Vatican City, is it true? Was the movie _Hudson Hawk_? The underground postal system featured in the film was real, but was the [Post Office Underground Railway](http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A3826019) that ran east-west across central London until 2003. However I possibly half-remember the detail from somewhere that there is actually an equivalent in Rome. This may be from reading the extensive coverage of the making of the film in the Royal Mail’s staff newspaper _Courier_ at the time (my father had been a lifelong employee and so still received a copy in retirement), but I certainly wouldn’t swear to it. ---
**Author:** ![Simple\_Mind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7cd45c/32.png) [@Simple\_Mind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simple_Mind)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2009, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-the-secrets-of-the-vatican/487353/9 "2009-02-26T12:14:16Z")
“Bonzer” you got it right, that was the movie, so the Scenes where shot in London! Interesting. I am quite a bit disappointed, I was counting on the “Dopers” to come up with Earth rocking revelations about this Center of stolen and hidden Secrets, which they collected there since 2000 years. ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2009, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-the-secrets-of-the-vatican/487353/10 "2009-02-26T17:49:52Z")
ISTR a terrorist plot in the past ten years where an cell was using a related system of catacombs, tunnels, aqueducts, and ancient sewers to get under Vatican City. The plan was to place explosives in the tunnels and destroy the City or whatever landmark the group ended up underneath. Perhaps this will jog someones memory as mine is fading fast. ---
**Author:** ![Simple\_Mind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7cd45c/32.png) [@Simple\_Mind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simple_Mind)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-the-secrets-of-the-vatican/487353/11 "2009-02-27T12:08:32Z")
> [@smithsb](#): > > ISTR a terrorist plot in the past ten years where an cell was using a related system of catacombs, tunnels, aqueducts, and ancient sewers to get under Vatican City. The plan was to place explosives in the tunnels and destroy the City or whatever landmark the group ended up underneath. Perhaps this will jog someones memory as mine is fading fast. This for sure would be interesting but I have not heard anything about it! A great pity that there is not more to be know…:dubious: [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/images/smilies/frown.gif](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/images/smilies/frown.gif) ☹ ---
**Author:** ![APB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@APB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/APB)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-the-secrets-of-the-vatican/487353/12 "2009-02-27T13:02:05Z")
The obvious reason why it seems unlikely that either the Vatican post office or the Italian postal service would have an underground railway under Rome is that building any underground railway there has always been very slow. Archaeological discoveries invariably hold things up. [The third line of the Rome Metro - which, as it happens, will run close to the Vatican’s eastern boundary - is only now finally under construction](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_C_(Rome_Metro)). > [@Simple\_Mind](#): > > I am quite a bit disappointed, I was counting on the “Dopers” to come up with Earth rocking revelations about this Center of stolen and hidden Secrets, which they collected there since 2000 years. It always strikes me that the most basic misconception of all about the Vatican’s collections is that they are 2,000 years old. OK, many of the individual items are indeed that old or even much older. But they haven’t belonged to ‘the Vatican’ for that long. Most have only been collected by the popes since the late middle ages. In the case of the archives, one even gets the sense that, for all their stress on the antiquity of the papacy, they’re slightly embarassed by the fact that few of them, ‘secret’ or otherwise, date back much beyond the twelfth century. The history of the papacy has been far too eventful for its collections to have anything like a continuous history back to the early period of the Church.