Overview

• On May 29, Pope Leone XIV visited Castel Gandolfo to inspect the Borgo Laudato si’ ecological education project and the former papal palace-turned-museum.
• Launched by Pope Francis in 2023, Borgo Laudato si’ offers training on sustainability, circular economy and integral ecology for groups ranging from students to vulnerable populations.
• Under Francis the villa’s reception floor and farm buildings were repurposed into permanent museum galleries, exhibition spaces and tourist amenities, though the upstairs private papal apartment remains largely untouched.
• The elimination of downstairs audience halls and on-site staff quarters has created logistical obstacles that Vatican officials are now assessing for any reconversion.
• Observers speculate that if Vatican authorities approve restoration of representation spaces, Leone XIV could revive the centuries-old tradition of summer stays at Castel Gandolfo.