The Vatican has contracted a family of blacksmiths in an Austrian
village to manufacture 80 new sets of armor in a project that will take
seven years to complete.Most of the existing armor worn by the Vatican's Swiss Guard dates back at least 100 years when people were generally smaller than they are today, so the existing armor does not always fit today's bulkier guards.
The firm of blacksmiths, Schmiede Schmidberger, is a family-run operation that has been in existence since the year 1350.