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Article: Soldiers of the Pope.(Swiss Guards, Vatican City)(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- Faces: People, Places, and Cultures
- Article date:
- December 1, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 Carus Publishing Co. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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If you go to the Vatican, you will see men stationed at each of the three entrances. Normally, they wear blue doublets with matching berets, but on ceremonial occasions, they wear tunics and puffy, knee-length pants called knickerbockers that are striped red, yellow, and dark blue. At their necks are white ruffs; on their heads, plumed helmets. The men wear armor and carry their traditional halberd, a spiked ax on a seven-foot pole. This uniform belongs to the Swiss Guards, the soldiers of the pope.
From a tiny, mountainous, landlocked country, the Swiss were desperately poor in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Their primary export in those days was ...