Finally, I have been able to find time to begin this much desired project.
First stage: researchAs everybody knows,
the popemobile is a
“specially designed motor vehicle used by the Pope of the Catholic Church during public appearances. It is usually considered the successor to the antiquated sedia gestatoria and was designed to allow the Pope to be more visible when greeting large crowds.” (Wikipedia).
The first of them was used by Pope Paul VI in 1965. From then to now there have been a lot of different popemobiles belonging to
the different Popes. Apart of those owned by
the Vatican State, it’s a normal custom that every country visited by
the Pope puts at his disposal a locally prepared
popemobile. This implies that there are a great variety of vehicle marks and models that are and have been used as popemobiles: Mercedes-Benz, Ford, Toyota, SEAT, FIAT, Range Rover, Land Rover, Jeep, KIA, GMC, Dacia, etc.
All
the popemobiles have in common a space behind
the driver's cabin, open or covered (usually with armored glass since
the terrorist attack against John Paul II in 1981), where
the Pope can travel standing or sitting, alone or accompanied.
The popemobile is painted in “vatican mystical white” colour and its registration plate has
the letters SCV (Stato della Città del Vaticano = State of
the Vatican City) followed usually by
the number 1.
The vehicle also carries Vatican City flags along with
the coat of arms of
the Vatican City printed on
the car body.
Below I include some pictures of different models of popemobiles, some of them older and others more modern.
The next chapter will be dedicated to
the choice of
the model car that will become
the popemobile.
Santi.