Swiss Guard

• 1. Introduction

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  The Pontifical Swiss Guard, the armed force that protects the Pope, makes an unusual demand of its men even after they leave. After five years of service, a guardsman may keep his uniform. His contract then obliges him to be buried in it, or to hand it to a specific Swiss Guard association.

  As of 2024, the Guard had just 135 members, and it is sometimes called the world's smallest army. It is also among the oldest military units still in continuous operation. Its men carry halberds, the long-bladed polearms of the Middle Ages, yet they also carry modern firearms.

  Why does the Pope's bodyguard come from Switzerland? What happened on one May day in the 16th century that nearly ended the force for good? And how did a corps in Renaissance costume become a unit trained for modern threats? The answers begin with a pope who had once been a bishop in Lausanne.

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• 2. Swiss Pikes for the Pope

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  Pope Sixtus IV, who reigned from 1471 to 1484, built barracks on the Via Pellegrino in Rome because he foresaw hiring Swiss mercenaries. He had allied with the Swiss Confederacy. Innocent VIII renewed that pact in 1484 so Swiss troops could be used against the Duke of Milan. Alexander VI, from 1492, then employed them during his alliance with the King of France.

  Under the Borgias, the Italian Wars began, and Swiss mercenaries became a fixture on the front lines. They fought at different times for France, for the Holy See and for the Holy Roman Empire. Many enlisted when they heard that King Charles VIII of France was marching against Naples. Among those in the campaign against Naples was Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere. Years earlier he had been Bishop of Lausanne, so he knew the Swiss well. The expedition failed, partly because Alexander VI had made new alliances against the French.

  In 1503, della Rovere became Pope Julius II and asked the Swiss Diet for a permanent corps of 200 mercenaries. The money came from German merchants of Augsburg, Ulrich and Jacob Fugger. They had invested in the Pope and wanted to protect that investment.

  In September 1505, a first contingent of 150 soldiers set out on foot for Rome under Kaspar von Silenen. They entered the city on the 22nd of January 1506. That day is now regarded as the official date of the Guard's foundation.

  The Swiss theologian Huldrych Zwingli, who later became a Protestant reformer, backed the cause. He declared that any tyrant hungry for wealth could assault "the common Mother of Christianity" with impunity. Julius II later granted the Guard the title "Defenders of the Church's freedom". That title would be tested in May 1527.

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• 3. The Day Rome Fell

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  On the 6th of May 1527, troops of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V advanced on Rome, and the Guard fought its most significant hostile engagement. Of 189 guardsmen, 147 died, among them their commander Caspar Röist. Their stand gave Pope Clement VII time to escape through the Passetto di Borgo. The 42 surviving guards escorted him. The battlefield lies on the southern side of St. Peter's Basilica, close to the Campo Santo Teutonico, the German Graveyard.

  Clement VII had to replace his depleted guard with 200 German mercenaries, known as the Custodia Peditum Germanorum. In 1537, Pope Paul III ordered the Swiss Guard reinstated and sent Cardinal Ennio Filonardi to oversee recruitment. Anti-papal sentiment in Switzerland made that work hard.

  In 1548, the papacy reached an agreement with Nikolaus von Meggen, the mayor of Lucerne. Under it, 150 new Swiss guardsmen were sworn in under Jost von Meggen, the mayor's nephew. Over the years the force would vary greatly in size, and sometimes be disbanded and rebuilt. Lucerne would supply the command for generations.

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• 4. Exile and Revival

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  Twelve guardsmen of Pius V took part in the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, serving with the force of admiral Marcantonio Colonna. That was an exception. With the Italian Wars over, the Guard no longer fought as a combat unit. Its job became protecting the person of the Pope and serving as an honour guard.

  Between 1652 and 1847, the Pfyffer von Altishofen family of Lucerne supplied nine of the ten commanders. The one exception was Johann Kaspar Mayr von Baldegg, also of Lucerne, who served from 1696 to 1704. The post had become a special honour in the Catholic regions of the Swiss Confederacy.

  In 1798, commander Franz Alois Pfyffer von Altishofen went into exile with the deposed Pius VI. The Pope died on the 29th of August 1799, and the Guard was disbanded. Pius VII reinstated it in 1800. In 1809, French forces again captured Rome, the Guard was disbanded again, and Pius VII was exiled to Fontainebleau. It returned in 1814 when the Pope did, under the earlier commander Karl Leodegar Pfyffer von Altishofen. In 1848, it was disbanded once more when Pius IX fled to Gaeta, and it was reinstated in 1849.

  After the Piedmontese invasion of Rome, the Guard slid in the later 19th century into a purely ceremonial body with low standards. Its men were "Swiss" in name only. Most were born in Rome to parents of Swiss descent and spoke the Roman dialect. They trained only for parade, kept a few obsolete rifles in store, and wore civilian dress when drilling. The unit numbered about 90 men out of an authorized 133.

  The modern Guard is the product of reforms by Jules Repond, commander from 1910 to 1921. He proposed recruiting only native citizens of Switzerland and introduced rigorous military exercises. He tried to bring in modern arms, but Pius X allowed firearms only if they did not work.

  In July 1913, the corps answered Repond's strict discipline with a week of open mutiny. Thirteen ringleaders were dismissed from the Guard.

  Repond also studied historical costume, hoping to design a uniform faithful to 16th-century Swiss dress yet practical for military exercise. He published his findings in 1917 as Le costume de la Garde suisse pontificale et la Renaissance italienne. The new uniforms had already been fully introduced by May 1914. A treaty in 1929 would soon change who answered for security in the Vatican.

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• 5. From Parade to Protection

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  In 1929, the Lateran Treaty, negotiated between the Holy See and Italy, created Vatican City as a modern sovereign state. Protecting public order fell to the Papal Gendarmerie Corps. The Swiss Guard, the Palatine Guard and the Noble Guard served mostly ceremonial functions.

  In 1970, Paul VI disbanded the Palatine and Noble Guards, leaving the Swiss Guard as the Vatican's only ceremonial guard unit. At the same time, the Gendarmerie became a central security office responsible for protecting the Pope and defending Vatican City. In June 1976, a decree by Paul VI fixed the nominal size of the corps at 90 men. In April 1979, John Paul II raised it to 100. By 2010, the Guard numbered 107 halberdiers in three squads.

  On the 13th of May 1981, a man attempted to assassinate John Paul II. Since then, the Guard has put much greater weight on its non-ceremonial roles. Guardsmen in plain clothes now accompany the Pope on trips abroad. The Guard has sought training in counter-sniper tactics, bomb disposal, hostage rescue, tactical driving and medical evacuation, among other skills.

  Its mission reaches beyond the Vatican walls. It covers the Pope's apostolic travels, the pontifical palace of Castel Gandolfo, and the College of Cardinals whenever the papal throne is vacant. Overall security and law enforcement in Vatican City, however, belongs to the separate Corps of Gendarmerie.

  In 2015, the Islamic State issued open threats against the Vatican, amid a rise in terrorism in Europe. Vatican officials worked with Italian authorities on protection against attacks that the Guard and the Gendarmerie could not reasonably defend against. Drone attacks were the chief example.

  In October 2019, the corps was enlarged to its present strength, up from the 110 men set by article 7 of its regulations. Those places go only to a narrow set of applicants.

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• 6. A Murder and a Dismissal

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  On the 4th of May 1998, commander Alois Estermann was murdered on the day of his promotion. His wife, Gladys Meza Romero, was killed with him. The killer was a young guardsman, Cédric Tornay, who later committed suicide.

  The case drew considerable public attention. It became the subject of a number of conspiracy theories, some alleging Cold War politics and others involvement by the Opus Dei prelature. British journalist John Follain published a book on the case in 2006. He concluded that Tornay acted purely out of personal motives.

  In December 2014, Pope Francis directed that Daniel Anrig's term as commander should end on the 31st of January 2015. His deputy, Christoph Graf, would succeed him. The decision followed reports about Anrig's "authoritarian style". Graf's family arms would later appear at the center of the Guard's banner.

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• 7. Joining Up

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  A candidate for the Swiss Guard must be a single Catholic male with Swiss citizenship, aged between 19 and 30 and at least 174 cm tall. He must have finished high school and basic training with the Swiss Armed Forces. His reputation and health must be irreproachable, and he must sign up for at least 26 months. Guards may marry after five years of service. In 2002, the first non-white guard joined the corps. In 2009, commandant Daniel Anrig suggested the Guard might one day be open to recruiting women.

  In 2006, a regular halberdier received a tax-free salary of €1,300 per month plus overtime. Guards also receive Vatican citizenship for the duration of their service, along with accommodation and board. They are eligible for pontifical decorations, and the Benemerenti medal is usually awarded after three years of faithful service.

  New guards are sworn in every year on the 6th of May, the anniversary of the Sack of Rome, in the San Damaso Courtyard. The chaplain reads the full oath aloud in German, Italian and French. In it, the guard promises to serve the Pope and his successors, "sacrificing, if necessary, my life" to defend them. The same duty applies to the College of Cardinals whenever the Apostolic See is vacant.

  Each recruit then steps to the Guard's flag as his name is called. He grasps the banner in his left hand and raises his right, with thumb, index and middle finger extended. The gesture stands for the Holy Trinity and for the Rütlischwur. He swears in his native tongue, which may be any of the four official languages of Switzerland. In 2021-34 new guards were sworn in. Twenty-three swore in German, two in Italian, eight in French and one in Romansh. Romansh speakers make up under 1% of the Swiss population.

  In April and May 2006, for the 500th anniversary, 80 former guardsmen marched from Bellinzona in southern Switzerland to Rome. Their march recalled the original Swiss soldiers who set out in 1505. On the 6th of May 2006-33 new guards were sworn in on the steps of St. Peter's Basilica, rather than in the usual courtyard. Representatives of the Honourable Artillery Company of London and the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts attended.

  In 2025, the death of Pope Francis on the 21st of April, and the conclave in early May, forced a postponement of the oath ceremony. It was eventually held on the 4th of October, with the Pope himself present. Two days earlier, on the 2nd of October, the Guard had unveiled a new formal suit.

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• 8. Wool, Steel and Banners

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  A Swiss Guard uniform has 154 pieces, and it takes nearly 32 hours and 3 fittings to complete. The tailors work inside the Vatican barracks and make each uniform individually. The full Renaissance set weighs 8 lb and may be the heaviest and most complicated uniform in use by any standing army. The wool comes exclusively from the town of Biella.

  In 2019, after more than 500 years, the Guard replaced its traditional metal helmet with a version made of PVC and fitted with hidden air vents. It takes one day to make, compared with several days for the metal model.

  The colors blue and yellow were in use from the 16th century. They are said to represent the Della Rovere coat of arms of Julius II. Red was added for the Medici coat of arms of Leo X. A 1577 fresco by Jacopo Coppi, showing the Empress Eudoxia talking with Pope Sixtus III, already depicts clothing close to today's three-colored dress. Sergeants wear black tunics and red breeches, and the sergeant major's helmet carries white feathers. Commissioned officers wear all red with golden embroidery, and the commander wears a white plume. Ostrich feathers decorate the ceremonial morion helmet, while pheasant or heron feathers were once used. For daily duty, a plain blue uniform and black beret are worn.

  The new formal suit is a recreation of one the force dropped in 1976. It is solid black wool, with a yellow and white belt, two rows of buttons on the breast, and a mandarin collar.

  The halberd gives the halberdiers their name. Corporals and vice-corporals carry a partisan, a more spear-like polearm. Two corporals or vice-corporals escort the banner with flamberge great swords. The armory, the Armeria, holds historical plate armor, with the oldest pieces dating to about 1580 and most from the 18th century. Armor was worn at canonizations until 1970. Since then, it has appeared only at the oath ceremony on the 6th of May.

  In 2012, a full set of replica cuirasses was commissioned from Waffen und Harnischschmiede Schmidberger in Molln, Upper Austria. Each handmade piece takes about 120 hours. Private donations pay for them, through the Foundation for the Swiss Guard in the Vatican, a Fribourg-based organisation established in 2000.

  Before 1870, the Guard used firearms with special calibres, such as the 12.7 mm Remington Papal. It has a tradition of importing Swiss arms, which recruits already know from their Swiss military training. Today the SIG Sauer P220 pistol and the SIG SG 550 assault rifle are standard issue. The Glock 19 serves in plainclothes bodyguard duty, and the Heckler & Koch MP7 is a personal defence weapon.

  A reference to the Guard's banner, then called a vennly, dates to 1519, though its design is unknown. A 1522 fresco by Polidoro da Caravaggio shows the commander flanked by two banners. The second commander, Marx Röist, commissioned it. Today's banner, first used under Jules Repond, is a square divided into quarters by a white cross. Julius II's arms fill the lower right quarter, the reigning pope's the upper left, and the commander's arms sit at the center.

  The 2025 banner, completed in May, shows the arms of Pope Leo XIV. It measures 2.2 m square and is woven in a damask of pomegranates and thistles, based on the Julius banners of 1512. During the pontificate of Francis, the Flag of Vatican City replaced the banner on ceremonial occasions when the Pope was present. That practice has carried over to Leo XIV.

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