For twelve years, the answer to this question was unusual. Pope Francis turned down the papal apartments in 2013 and moved into a room in a Vatican guesthouse, where he stayed until his death in 2025. His successor moved back.
Pope Leo XIV lives in the papal apartments of the Apostolic Palace, the traditional papal residence, restoring an arrangement that had held for more than a century before Francis broke it. The location is also closely connected to what the pope does, from receiving official visitors to delivering major public addresses and carrying out the duties of his office.
- Current pope: Pope Leo XIV
- Residence: Papal Apartments
- Building: Apostolic Palace
- Location: Vatican City
- Previous exception: Pope Francis lived at Casa Santa Marta
Quick Answer – Pope Leo XIV lives in the papal apartments of the Apostolic Palace in Vatican City, the traditional residence of the pope. The apartment is on the top floor of the palace overlooking St Peter’s Square.
The Apostolic Palace
The palace sits on the northeast side of St Peter’s Square, rising above the colonnade. It is less a house than a complex: government offices, the Vatican Library, the Vatican Museums, the Sistine Chapel, chapels, reception rooms and, on the top floor, the papal apartment.
The apartment itself runs to roughly ten rooms, including a bedroom, a study, a private chapel, a dining room, and quarters for the papal secretaries and household staff.
Its most recognisable feature is a window. The second window from the right on the top floor is where the pope appears each Sunday to deliver the Angelus and address the crowd below. Millions of people have seen the room from the outside without knowing what it is.
Popes have used the palace as their principal residence since the return from Avignon in the fourteenth century, with the modern arrangement settled after 1870.
The residence is part of the wider Vatican complex, which occupies only a tiny area. For context, how big is Vatican City is a useful question because the entire sovereign state covers just a fraction of the area of many major cities?
What Is Inside the Papal Apartment?
The papal apartment contains several private and working spaces, including:
- A bedroom
- A private study
- A private chapel
- A dining room
- Rooms for papal secretaries
- Quarters for household staff
The apartment is located on the top floor of the Apostolic Palace. Its famous window is used by the pope for the Sunday Angelus and other public addresses.
Why Francis Moved Out
Days after his election in March 2013, Francis declined to move into the apartment and took a suite at the Domus Sanctae Marthae, known as Casa Santa Marta, a guesthouse inside the Vatican walls.
He gave a straightforward reason: the papal apartment was too isolating, and he wanted to live among other people rather than alone at the top of a palace. He kept room 201 and stayed there for the whole of his pontificate, using the Apostolic Palace for audiences and formal business while sleeping and eating at the guesthouse.
The decision drew a great deal of commentary at the time. It was a personal choice rather than a change to any rule, and nothing bound his successor to follow it.
What Casa Santa Marta was built for
The building has a specific purpose that gets lost in the coverage of Francis. John Paul II commissioned it in 1996, at a reported cost of around 20 million dollars, primarily to house cardinals during a conclave.
Before it existed, cardinals shut inside the Apostolic Palace for a conclave slept on camp beds in corridors. The two conclaves of 1978 were held in August and October in conditions participants later described as punishing.
Santa Marta solved that. It has around 129 rooms and functions as a guesthouse for visiting clergy the rest of the time, with some Curia priests living there permanently. During a conclave, the permanent residents are required to leave, and the building is sealed.
This is particularly important when explaining What is a conclave is. A conclave is a closed election in which cardinals gather to choose a new pope, with the process taking place under strict rules and security.
That is exactly what happened in the spring of 2025. Ahead of the conclave that elected Leo XIV, the Vatican cleared the building and converted it into secure lodging for the cardinal electors, leaving suite 201, Francis’s rooms, unoccupied.
Castel Gandolfo, The Summer Residence
The papal summer residence sits about 25 kilometres southeast of Rome in the Alban Hills, overlooking Lake Albano. The estate is larger than Vatican City itself and includes gardens, farmland and an astronomical observatory run by the Vatican.
Popes traditionally spent July and August there to escape the Roman heat. Francis broke this habit too, staying in Rome through the summers and opening the palace and its gardens to the public as a museum.
The estate holds extraterritorial status under the Lateran Treaty, meaning it belongs to the Holy See rather than to Italy despite sitting outside Vatican City.
Where the Pope Lived Before
Leo XIV’s own address before his election was neither of these. As a cardinal serving as prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops from 2023, Robert Prevost lived in the Palace of the Holy Office, a sixteenth-century building immediately outside the Vatican walls that houses the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and holds extraterritorial status.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where does Pope Leo XIV live?
In the papal apartments on the top floor of the Apostolic Palace, the traditional papal residence.
Why did Pope Francis not live in the Apostolic Palace?
He found the apartment isolating and chose to live among others at the Casa Santa Marta guesthouse, where he stayed for his entire pontificate.
What is Casa Santa Marta?
A Vatican guesthouse built under John Paul II in 1996, designed primarily to accommodate cardinals during a conclave and used as lodging for visiting clergy the rest of the time.
Which window does the pope appear from?
The second window from the right on the top floor of the Apostolic Palace, overlooking St Peter’s Square, is used for the Sunday Angelus.
Does the pope still use Castel Gandolfo?
The estate remains the papal summer residence. Francis chose not to use it and opened it to visitors as a museum.
Can you visit the papal apartments?
No. The private apartment is closed to the public, though large parts of the Apostolic Palace complex, including the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel, are open.
The Bottom Line
The pope lives at the top of the Apostolic Palace, behind the window the Sunday crowds photograph. Francis was the exception rather than the rule, and his twelve years in a guesthouse room told you something about how he wanted the job done rather than anything about where the job is supposed to be done from.
Sources:
Holy See press office; Vatican Museums and Vatican City State Governorate; Lateran Treaty, 1929; Catholic News Service and OSV News reporting on Casa Santa Marta and the 2025 conclave; Encyclopaedia Britannica.
