A lagoon in St. Peter’s Square? Vatican Nativity scene set to make a splash

Vatican City, Dec 4, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

A small island town in northern Italy has put its heart into recreating a local lagoon in a Nativity scene for St. Peter’s Square — the first time the crèche will feature a large body of water.

“There’s not only the work behind it, but there’s the love, there’s the passion of everybody,” Andrea de Walderstein, the Nativity’s architect, designer, and construction manager, told CNA.

“We are the first to bring water to St. Peter’s [Square],” he said, explaining that the grandiose Nativity will feature the lagoon of Grado, a town of about 8,000 people located on an island and adjacent peninsula in the Adriatic Sea between Venice and Trieste.

De Walderstein said the ambitious display — which will be nearly 100 feet long and over 45 feet wide — is being assembled “like a Lego practically.” The embankment of the “lagoon” alone requires 102 Styrofoam bricks.

While not disclosing every surprise, de Walderstein and Antonio Boemo, the coordinator and leader of the project, told CNA that the replica lagoon will be set in the early 1900s and will feature a beach, islands, boats, animals, and representatives of the inhabitants of the town.

The scene, to be unveiled on Dec. 7, will also feature “casoneri,” the fishermen who used to live in huts on the islands of the Grado lagoon. According to information from the Vatican, the fishermen and women would traditionally only come into the village for three important holidays every year, including Easter and Christmas.

The traditional Nativity figures of Mary, Joseph, and the child Jesus will be inside one of the fishermen’s huts, called a “casone.”

“What we are interested in is that people will admire, become curious, and understand the feelings that we have when we go to the lagoon,” Boemo said.

But bringing a large body of water into St. Peter’s Square posed an important challenge — how to keep the seagulls of Rome from turning it into a giant birdbath.

This was a big concern for the Vatican, de Walderstein said. “So we came up with a system with ultrasonic machines to keep them away.”

Boemo’s idea for a Nativity scene featuring the lagoon of Grado first came to him years ago. He told CNA a proposal was sent to the Vatican in 2016 and he is so happy to finally be seeing his dream become a reality.

He emphasized that this project has involved the whole community of Grado, with 40 people being physically involved in the construction and approximately 500 from the town expected to attend the unveiling.

The architect de Walderstein, too, said after being originally brought on just to design the project, will also “do the workmanship, because I really like to touch it with my own hands and build it with my own hands.”

“I have to thank Antonio, who involved me in this adventure. I am really happy,” he said.