Pope’s Old Apartment Building Goes on eBay
FRANKFURT, Germany — An apartment building in the western German city of Bonn where Pope Benedict XVI is believed to have lived in 1959-1963 was listed for sale Monday on the German eBay site.
Unlike the traditional eBay auctions, the house is not up for bids. Instead, an e-mail address is given for those who might be interested in making an offer to contact the seller.
"Former domicile of Pope Benedict XVI," reads the description of the house, featured with a picture of Benedict during his tenure as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. "Real estate with religious history."
The three-story building has six four-room apartments, including the one where the pope purportedly lived, and a commercial space on the ground floor.
Also featured on the site is a copy of a page from a 1962 phone directory, listing a Joseph Ratzinger at the address of the apartment house, "Wurzerstrasse 11" in Bad Godesberg, which is now part of greater Bonn. The pope is said to have lived there from July 1959 to May 1963 when he was a professor at the University of Bonn.
The seller, who is listed only as C. Blatzheim, did not immediately respond to an e-mail request for more information.
The Vatican said it does not comment on "private" matters regarding the pope.
Earlier this month, a 6-year-old Volkswagen sold for about $244,000 after word emerged it might have once belonged the new pope. EBay spokeswoman Daphne Rauch said the new owner was the Golden Palace casino of Austin, Texas.
—–
On the Net:
The link to the eBay listing, which is in German: