The Cardinals’ Vestry

The Cardinals’ Vestry is located in the Saint Lawrence Tower. The six-storey tower was built under Innocent VI to buttress the vaults of the chapel and house the vestry.

It also fortified the south-eastern corner of the Palace.
In the 14th century, the Vestry was used as a sacristy during pontifical ceremonies and the cardinals put on their sacerdotal habits here. During the 17th and 18th centuries, as evidenced by few remaining traces of decoration, it was equipped for the Auditor General, who was Chairman of the Rota. Paintings depicting reeds, and goldcrests embellished the window recesses.
This room has a vaulted, arche ceiling with intersecting ribs, which descend onto clusters of small columns. One of the keystones bears Innocent VI’s coat of arms.

The casts are copies of the funeral effigies of Popes Clement V, Clement VI, Innocent VI and Urban V, as no Pontiff was everburied in the palace.