Vatican, Giardini Vaticani and Monastero Mater Ecclesiae, residence of Benedict XVI, former Pope of the Catholic Church. Northern Rome in background.

The Monastery of Mater Ecclesiae (Latin for Mother of the Church) is located inside Vatican City. It was founded about 1990 by Pope John Paul II as a monastery for cloistered nuns, and currently serves as the residence of Benedict XVI, former Pope of the Catholic Church.

The monastery, named after a Catholic title for Mary, is located on the Vatican hill inside the Vatican Gardens and near the Aquilone fountain. It was founded by Pope John Paul II in order to have a community of nuns of an enclosed religious order inside Vatican City, who were to pray for the pope in his service to the Catholic Church. This task was, at the beginning, entrusted to the nuns of the Order of St. Clare, better known as the Poor Clares. This assignment, however, was shifted every five years to another female monastic order, who would then occupy the monastery.
The building was erected between 1992 and 1994 in place of an administrative building of the Vatican police. Its structure is incorporated into the Leonine walls. The building is divided in two parts: The western chapel (two floors and rectangular in shape) and the eastern community rooms and monastic cells (rectangular in shape and, on the Aquilone fountain's side, with four floors, with 12 monastic cells on the second and third floors, and a refectory, store, kitchen, infirmary, archives and an office-studio on the ground and lower ground floors). Adjacent to the monastery is a fruit and vegetable garden. The pope visited the monastery several times, where he would preside at Mass for the nuns.
With the start of renovation works in November 2012, the last nuns moved out.

After his historic retirement in February of the following year, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI moved into the monastery on 2 May 2013. He lives there accompanied by a few assistants, with their domestic needs cared for by a small community of women belonging to a secular institute called Memores Domini, part of the Communion and Liberation movement.

Pope Benedict XVI (Latin: Benedictus XVI; Italian: Benedetto XVI; German: Benedikt XVI; born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger on 16 April 1927) served as Pope of the Catholic Church from 2005 until his resignation in 2013. Benedict was elected on 19 April 2005 in a papal conclave following the death of Pope John Paul II and was inaugurated on 24 April 2005. On 11 February 2013, Benedict announced his resignation in a speech in Latin before the cardinals, citing a "lack of strength of mind and body" due to his advanced age. His resignation became effective on 28 February 2013. He is the first pope to resign since Pope Gregory XII in 1415, and the first to do so on his own initiative since Pope Celestine V in 1294. As pope emeritus, Benedict retains the style of His Holiness, and the title of Pope, and continues to dress in the papal colour of white. He was succeeded by Pope Francis on 13 March 2013, and he moved into the newly renovated monastery Mater Ecclesiae for his retirement on 2 May 2013.

More on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mater_Ecclesiae_Monastery_(Vatican_City) , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Benedict_XVI