What’s protecting the pope’s Swiss Guard?
For the past 200 years the Schmidberger blacksmith's family in Molln, Austria have been producing handcrafted armour. Their clients include the Vatican, which has ordered 80 piece of armour for its Swiss Guard.
The Swiss Guard has been protecting the pontiff for over 500 years. It is most recognisable for its Renaissance-style garb in the colours of the Medici family. Most of the armour of the papal security force dates back several hundred years, when people were generally smaller than they are today. There were five standard sizes of armour and only officers elected to serve for life had a custom made suit.
Today brothers Johann and Georg Schmidberger are carrying on the family tradition. To make a suit of armour weighing up to 12 kilograms takes about 120 hours. They are creating ten harnesses a year which will delivered in person to the Vatican. (Lisi Niesner/Reuters)
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here. Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.