The Vatican Has Over 50 Miles of Underground Archives Containing the World’s History

By Vicky Verma,

Pope Francis has died! However, not many people know that the Vatican has over 50 miles of underground archives containing the world’s history. Let that sink in… 50 miles. And this isn’t even a conspiracy theory.

The Vatican’s Secret Archives are real and located in one of the most famous religious and cultural places in the world—the Vatican. These archives stretch across 53 miles of shelving and include 35,000 volumes of catalogs. They hold documents that are over 1,200 years old.

The name “Secret Archives” adds to their mystery and makes people think of hidden secrets or dark stories. Because the indexes aren’t public and access is limited to certain scholars, many people imagine that the archives hold shocking or even strange things. Some even believe the Vatican is hiding aliens there! (Source)

But in truth, the archives are not actually meant to be “secret.” The word “secret” comes from a Latin word, secretum, which really means “private.” These archives were always meant to store the Pope’s official documents, letters, and important Church records.

Inside, you’ll also find some of the Church’s most valuable historical papers, with some dating back to the 700s. For a long time, not even religious scholars could read them. That changed in 1881 when Pope Leo XIII, a forward-thinking Pope, opened the archives to researchers. Since then, the documents have helped tell the story of both the Church and the wider world.

One of the most important documents in the Vatican’s Secret Archives changed the course of religious history. It’s the official paper that shows the Catholic Church kicking out Martin Luther. Luther was a German man who challenged the Church by writing his famous 95 Theses, which started the Protestant Reformation. In response, Pope Leo X wrote a statement called Decet Romanum Pontificem, officially excommunicating Luther. This allowed Luther to start his own church and created a major split in Christianity that still affects the world today.

Another fascinating document in the archives is called the Chinon Parchment. It records the trial of the Knights Templar, a Catholic military group that was accused of crimes like heresy during the Crusades. The parchment is huge—about the size of a dining table—and was lost for hundreds of years due to a filing error. It wasn’t rediscovered until 2001, hidden in a box with other papers. Once found, it was properly sorted and made available to researchers.

When the Vatican made the Chinon Parchment public in 2007, it revealed something surprising: in 1308, Pope Clement V had actually cleared the Knights Templar of heresy. This new information helped restore the group’s reputation, which had been damaged for centuries.

All these documents—and many more—are stored in a special place near the Vatican Library in Rome. The archives include regular stacks and reading rooms, but also an underground fireproof bunker to protect delicate materials. There’s even a school for clergy to study history, and because it’s the Vatican, there’s sacred art to enjoy as well.

Access to the archives isn’t open to everyone. Only carefully approved scholars are allowed in. Still, the Vatican has become a bit more open in recent years. In 2010, journalists were allowed to visit for the first time—partly due to public interest after Dan Brown’s book Angels and Demons. In 2012, the Vatican held a public exhibition for the archives’ 400th anniversary, showing off some of its most important documents.

In 2019, Pope Francis announced that the Vatican would open up its archives on Pope Pius XII. During an event honoring the 80th anniversary of Pius’s election, Francis said, “The Church is not afraid of history.”

What secrets do you think are hidden in the Vatican’s secret archives?

Throughout history, some people have had a deep knowledge of many subjects. One such person was a Russian man named Genrikh Mavrikiyevich Ludvig. He was very smart and skilled in ancient cultures, architecture, engineering, and old languages. Some people even compared him to Leonardo da Vinci. It’s said that Ludvig was able to access secret files from the Vatican and may have found information about ancient aliens.

Ludvig’s story became more widely known in 2011 when a Russian newspaper called Sovershenno Sekretno published an article about him. The writer described Ludvig as a large man with a bald head, a big forehead, and a beard. His eyes were intense and he often got into trouble with the Soviet government. In 1938, he was accused of being a Vatican spy and sent to a concentration camp.

The writer, who had been one of Ludvig’s students, remembered attending a lecture by him in the 1960s. At first, it seemed interesting, but then it became confusing as Ludvig talked about many different topics like language, history, plants, and science. The writer wasn’t sure if Ludvig was a genius or a mystic. However, he said meeting Ludvig changed his view of the world.

Ludvig claimed that during the 1920s, he was allowed to read secret documents in the Vatican Archives, a huge collection of very old records. These documents are usually hidden from the public for 75 years. He said he found strange texts about ancient codes, alchemy, and even stories about aliens and UFOs visiting Earth long ago. (Source)

According to Ludvig, some of these texts talked about aliens helping early civilizations like the Egyptians, Mayans, and Mesopotamians. He studied the Mayan symbols and believed they showed images of spaceships and astronauts. He even said there were signs of nuclear weapons being used in ancient times, like melted walls in Babylon.

Ludvig also had a deep interest in the Sumerians, one of the first known civilizations. He believed that they suddenly advanced around 4000 BC, learning to build cities, use irrigation, invent the wheel, and create writing. Their early writing was made up of picture-like symbols and dated back to around 3200 BC.

He also believed that the pyramids in Egypt were not just tombs, but tools for spiritual or cosmic communication. Ludvig thought Christian images of angels came from an earlier culture called the Etruscans.

During World War II, even while he was a prisoner in the GULAG, Ludvig worked as an inventor and engineer. Between 1941 and 1943, he created 17 military inventions. Today, many UFO researchers and people who believe in ancient aliens know his name.

In 2016, leaked emails from Hillary Clinton’s campaign showed that her advisor, John Podesta, had received messages about UFOs and extraterrestrial life. One of the emails came from astronaut Edgar Mitchell, who said that the Vatican was aware of alien life. He also spoke about the need to keep peace in space and prevent it from being used for war.

Despite these amazing claims, not everyone believes Ludvig’s story. There is not much solid evidence to prove he really saw the secret Vatican documents or discovered all this information.

Vatican’s involvement in UAPs & Alien life

In his other interview with James Landoli on “Engaging The Phenomenon,” Daniel Sheehan, who was a former Chief Council for the United States Jesuit order, revealed intriguing details about his conversations with the head of the Vatican archives regarding the Vatican’s knowledge of extraterrestrial life. Sheehan shed light on his involvement in a groundbreaking initiative to address the theological and philosophical implications of the discovery of extraterrestrial intelligence.

During the interview, James raised the topic of David Grusch‘s claim that the Vatican possessed knowledge of extraterrestrial phenomena. Sheehan discussed his access to the classified files of the Project Blue Book, where he encountered photos of UFO crash retrievals and concrete evidence of non-human piloted vehicles.

He proposed the formation of a task force involving all 54 major religious denominations to address the issue from a theological perspective. However, at that time, there was insufficient consensus, and the proposal was declined. Sheehan is currently working through his New Paradigm Institute to organize a global summit conference involving world religious leaders to discuss the recent recovery of an extraterrestrial spacecraft.

“The United States government is in possession of biological evidence and has actually taken into custody alive an extraterrestrial person. They’re keeping this secret, interrogating the being, and distorting the information to justify massive expenditures on weapon development under the guise of a perceived threat.” – Daniel Sheehan

Sheehan highlighted the Vatican’s acknowledgment of the possibility of extraterrestrial life. He referenced a formal statement issued by the Catholic Church on November 10, 2009, authorized by Pope Benedict. The statement, issued by Father Jose Gabriel Alfuz, a director of the Pontifical Observatory in Rome, recognized the increasing discovery of exoplanets and called for a global discussion on the philosophical and theological implications of the imminent discovery of extraterrestrial life.