Pope Pius XI’s 1930 Mercedes-Benz Nürburg 460 carries just one seat in its rear compartment, upholstered in crimson brocade. The Pius XI Mercedes was a gift from the carmaker, and it still survives in the Vatican’s own collection. It is also the first car Mercedes-Benz supplied to a pope, which makes it the start of a long line.
The car is a big, upright Pullman limousine from the end of the 1920s. In fact, its single rear chair told everyone exactly who rode in back.
Better still, it never left the Vatican for good. After a factory restoration in the 1980s, it went straight back to Rome, where visitors can see it today.
A gift that took more than a year to deliver
The idea came from an advertising man. According to Auto Zeitung, Robert Katzenstein proposed giving the pope a limousine. He took the plan to the German ambassador, Diego von Bergen, and Rome welcomed it.
Planning began in the summer of 1929, the German magazine says, with delivery set for that winter. However, the date slipped. The elaborate interior was not finished until the spring of 1930. Then a delegation from Stuttgart drove the car to Rome in the summer of 1930.
After that, the formal gift followed. The Vatican Museums date the donation to November 14, 1930. Mercedes-Benz gave it to mark the Conciliation between the Church and the Italian state, the museum says.
It was also a first. A Philippine Daily Inquirer report on papal cars says the first vehicle Mercedes-Benz provided for a pope was this Nürburg 460 Pullman saloon for Pius XI.
Inside the Pius XI Mercedes
Still, the cabin is the reason the car is famous. For reasons of protocol, the Vatican Museums explain, the rear holds a single seat in crimson brocade. The museum adds that it recalls the papal throne.
Auto Zeitung describes the rest of the fittings. The seat is silk brocade, and the headliner is embroidered by hand. In addition, the pope had a command keypad to tell the driver where to go and how fast.
As a result, those keys read like a sheet of music. According to the magazine, they used tempo markings such as “Presto” and “Adagio.” Presto was the signal to drive fast.
The pope liked what he saw. During a test drive in the Vatican Gardens, he reportedly called it a masterpiece and “a wonder of modern technology,” the Vatican Museums say. Auto Zeitung quotes the same “wonder of modern technology” line.
What the Nürburg 460 was underneath
Beneath the papal trim sat a regular Mercedes-Benz model. The Vatican Museums credit Ferdinand Porsche with the design of the 460 Nürburg long-wheelbase limousine. The museum also says the model was first shown at the Paris Salon in 1928.
Mercedes-Benz’s own public archive agrees on that debut, dating it to the Paris Motor Show in October 1928. It describes the engine as a 4.6-liter inline eight making 80 hp. Later, Dr. Hans Nibel, chief designer from January 1, 1929, revised the car for its second model year.
That eight-cylinder used side valves, according to Supercars.net, which lists 4,622 cc and a four-speed manual gearbox. The Vatican Museums give the papal car’s top speed as 110 km/h, or about 68 mph. By comparison, Auto Zeitung says the driver could reach 100 km/h on the Presto signal.
At the same time, the body was special. The Mercedes archive says Pius XI was among a few VIP customers who got the Nürburg with the Pullman body of the “Grand Mercedes.” Supercars.net names that donor as the big 770, which was unusual for the smaller chassis.
Restored in 1984 and back in Rome
After decades of service, the car went home to Germany for work. Auto Zeitung reports that Mercedes had it restored in 1984. The job took a year in the museum workshop at Fellbach.
Afterward, Mercedes returned the car to Pope John Paul II, 54 years after its first delivery, the magazine says. Since the autumn of 1984, it has lived in the Vatican’s carriage museum.
The first of many papal Mercedes
The Nürburg set a pattern. According to Auto Zeitung, a 300 d Landaulet followed in 1960, 30 years later. The Inquirer report says Pope John XXIII received that car.
Then a 600 Pullman Landaulet followed in 1965, which Auto Zeitung says now sits in the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Untertürkheim. The Inquirer says Pope Paul VI used it.
The Nürburg 460 remains the oldest of them. Today it sits in the Carriage Pavilion of the Vatican Museums, with its lone crimson brocade seat still in place.
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