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Status: 03.05.2025 12:08 p.m.
Preparations for the conclave will run from Wednesday. For this purpose, the chimney important for the Pope election was now installed on the Sistine chapel. And how does the right smoke get out of the pipe now?
Actually, it is very simple: when a pope is chosen, then white smoke rises from the chimney of the Sistine chapel. If the ballot has brought no result, the smoke is black. But it’s not that easy.
Firstly, the Sistine chapel usually doesn’t have a real big chimney at all. It was now quickly installed on the roof.
Secondly, people stood on St. Peter’s Square in earlier Pope elections and tried to see whether the smoke should be black or white – it was simply gray.
In March 2013, when the Pope Francis, who had now died, was elected, the color of the smoke was relatively easy to see. That was not always the case in earlier times.
Chemicals for the right smoke
That is why there are now two cast iron stoves in the Sistine chapel. In one, the old one, the counted ballot papers are burned. And in the second, the modern, really white or really black smoke is produced – with the help of chemicals.
The custom that the result of a choice is communicated with smoke has existed since 1914. Where this idea comes from is unclear. Black and white smoke are not prescribed in the electoral code.
