Pope Francis's body was transported to Saint Peter's Basilica on Wednesday where he will lie in state before his funeral on Saturday. The late Pope's open wooden coffin was carried by pallbearers for 500 metres from the Casa Santa Marta, where he lived and died.
Red-robed cardinals, priests, friars carrying candles and the Vatican's Swiss Guards walked slowly into the vast esplanade as a male choir chanted psalms and prayers in Latin while the great bells of the basilica tolled.
The body of the 88-year-old Argentine pontiff was held aloft on a wooden platform by 14 white-gloved, black-suited pallbearers.
Pope Francis died two days ago in his rooms at the Santa Marta guesthouse, very near the Basilica, after suffering a stroke.
He had spent five weeks in hospital earlier this year to be treated for double pneumonia, and last appeared in public on Sunday, when he surprised pilgrims by being driven around the packed square in his white, open-topped popemobile.
Francis's body had been held in the chapel of Santa Marta, where he lived during his 12-year papacy, but will now lie in state at the basilica until Saturday's funeral.
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Special ceremony
Francis's coffin was placed before St Peter's Altar of the Confession, where Bernini's bronze baldacchino soars up towards Michelangelo's famous dome.
A crowd of several thousand broke into repeated applause as the coffin crossed St. Peter's Square, as the Italian tradition goes, a sign of respect at such events, with some pilgrims and tourists snapping photos.
"Dear brothers and sisters, with deep sorrow we now accompany the mortal remains of our Pope Francis to the Vatican Basilica," the Irish-American cardinal Kevin Farrell said at the start of the ceremony.
Faithful pilgrims will be able to pay their respects to Francis until Friday evening.
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Outdoor service
The funeral will draw heads of state and government from around the world, including US President Donald Trump, who clashed repeatedly with the Pope on social issues.
The head of Italy's civil protection agency, Fabio Ciciliano, told the Corriere della Sera newspaper that at least 200,000 people are expected to attend the outdoor service.
Afterwards, Francis's coffin will be taken to his favourite church, Rome's papal basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, where it will be interred in the ground and marked by a simple inscription: Franciscus.
The Catholic Church now has to choose a new pope as leader of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics, but a conclave is not expected to start before 6 May.
Cardinals from around the world are coming to Rome, and are due to decide the date following common discussions. The conclave should begin no less than 15 days and no more than 20 after the death of the pope.
Cardinal Farrell is charged with running the day-to-day operations of the Holy See before the successor to Francis is chosen.
No clear frontrunner is seen as an obvious successor to Francis. Names have been mentioned including Luis Antonio Tagle, a reformer from the Philippines, Pietro Parolin, from Italy, and Jean-Marc Aveline, the archbishop of Marseille.
(with newswires)
