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Rome Newsroom, Dec 7, 2025 / 08:00 am
The Vatican’s gardeners have a new tool for maintaining the papal grounds: a custom-designed electric lawn mower bearing the Holy See’s coat of arms.
Pope Leo XIV received the white Electra 2.0 mower during a general audience in mid-November, a gift from Czech manufacturer Swardman.
The specially commissioned model features leather-lined handles and was hand-assembled at the company’s facility in Šardice, Czech Republic. “It was an incredibly powerful experience full of humility and respect,” Jakub Dvořák, the company’s sales manager who personally presented the gift, told CNA. “The pontiff appreciated the Vatican’s coat of arms placed on the appliance, listened with interest as we explained how it functions, and thanked us very politely.”
The quiet, precision-cutting mower is destined for use in the Vatican Gardens or possibly at the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo, according to a press release from the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which facilitated the presentation.
Founded in 2013, the company manufactures lawn care equipment that it describes as combining functionality with “timeless elegance” suited to historic settings. The Czech Embassy to the Holy See played a key role in arranging the gift, which Dvořák called “a moment of unmistakable magic.”
Vatican gardeners will put the electric mower to work maintaining the manicured lawns that provide green respite within the world’s smallest state.
Bohumil Petrík is the only known journalist from Slovakia and all of ex-Czechoslovakia accredited to the Holy See. He was an intern with EWTN in Rome, at Vatican Radio as well as in the communications department of the European Parliament in Brussels. Originally from Slovakia, he studied in the Czech Republic and currently lives in Rome.
