Known as the papal tiara or the “Triple Crown,” this historic headdress is the most revered and sacred symbol of the papacy. In addition to appearing prominently on papal emblems and coats of arms, the tiara was also a physical crown worn by popes for more than 1,000 years.

The Latin name of the papal tiara is the triregnum or “triple reign.” It’s a cone-shaped headdress composed of three layers, giving the impression of an elaborate beehive adorned with gold and precious gems.

According to historians, the tiara didn’t always have three layers. The earliest versions, dating back to the fourth century, were inspired by a conical Greco-Roman headdress called a Phrygian cap, as well as a Byzantine hat known as a camelaucum.

The tiara got its first ringed “crown” in the 900s to represent the pope’s authority over the Papal States, large swaths of land in central Italy that included Rome. Even though they weren’t kings, popes in the Middle Ages enjoyed a certain level of earthly power, says Christopher Bellitto, a historian at Kean University.

The second crown debuted on the tiara of Pope Boniface VIII in 1298, who wanted to emphasize the spiritual dominion of the pope. A third crown was added a century later, perhaps to indicate the pope’s supreme spiritual and moral authority over earthly kings.

Over time, the papal tiara became more and more elaborate and bejeweled. Pope Julius II was crowned with a tiara in 1503 that was valued by a Milan jeweler at 200,000 ducats (each ducat was 3.5 grams of pure gold). Each new pope was crowned with a tiara at their coronation and wore it during special processions from St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.

The physical tiara was removed as part of the pope’s official vestments as part of the Vatican II reforms of the 1960s.

“The last pope who had the tiara put on his head was Paul VI in 1963,” says Bellitto, author of 101 Questions & Answers on Popes and the Papacy. Paul VI’s stunning golden tiara is on display at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C.

As an emblem of the papacy, the tiara is depicted as three tiered crowns topped with an orb and a cross representing the dominion of Jesus over the world. The papal tiara figures prominently on the coat of arms of the Holy See.

The next most prominent symbol of the papacy is known as the “keys of the kingdom” or the “keys of Peter.” This emblem is displayed as two keys—one gold and one silver—crossing over each other diagonally and bound together by a cord.

The crossed keys have been the official insignia of the papacy since the 14th century, but their origins date back to Jesus’ words in the New Testament. In the Gospel of Matthew, Simon Peter is one of the first disciples to recognize Jesus as the Messiah. Jesus responds by declaring, “You are Peter and on this rock will I build my church… I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

According to Catholic tradition, St. Peter was the very first pope, the “rock” upon which Jesus established his church. All popes since St. Peter have been vested with those same keys and authority.

“The two crossed keys represent the pope’s power on Earth and in heaven,” says Bellitto. “Because remember, all throughout the Middle Ages, the Pope actually had a lot of governmental control over the Papal States.”

The golden key, positioned on the right, represents the power of the kingdom of heaven, while the silver key represents the pope’s spiritual authority on Earth. The grips of the keys are positioned downward, because they are meant to be in the pope’s hands. The cord binding the keys together shows how the pope’s authority unites heaven and earth.

Another sacred and ancient symbol of the papacy is a striped parasol or umbrella known as the umbraculum or ombrellino. Like the papal tiara, the umbraculum started out as a functional object.

“It was something that people carried around to give the pope shade,” says Bellitto, “like they used to do for kings and pharaohs.”

Over centuries, the large striped parasol became associated with the pope, who traveled seated on a special litter called the sedia gestatoria carried by footmen and flanked by large, feathered fans. The emperor-like portable throne was abandoned by Pope John XXIII as part of the Vatican II reforms and the umbraculum took on a purely symbolic role.

The umbrella symbol is most prominently displayed on the coat of arms of the camerlengo, the Vatican official who is in charge of the Church during the interregnum, the period following the death of a pope when the papacy is temporarily vacant. The sede vacante (“empty seat”) coat of arms has the umbraculum in place of the tiara above the crossed keys.

Also, all Catholic cathedrals that qualify as basilicas receive a physical umbraculum that sits to the right of the altar and represents papal authority. When the pope visits one of those basilicas, the umbrella is opened.

There are several other symbolic objects that aren’t exclusively used by the pope, but are associated historically with the papacy.

The mitre is the prime example. Today, all bishops in the Roman Catholic Church can wear a mitre, which is a pointed hat made from two panels (front and back) connected by cloth. Since the pope is the Bishop of Rome, he can also choose to wear a mitre during mass and other liturgical settings.

Historically, though, the mitre was exclusively worn by popes. Starting in the 10th century with Pope Leo VIII, the mitre was the original “pope hat” before the papal tiara came into widespread use. It’s believed that the style of hat was borrowed from the Greeks, who crowned their athletic champions with a hat called a mitros.

Even though the mitre has been worn by all Catholic bishops for centuries, it is still a powerful symbolic object for popes. The two most recent popes, Benedict XVI and Francis, both used the mitre instead of the tiara as the crowning emblem on their papal coats of arms.

Two other symbolic objects that are closely associated with the papacy are the pallium and the crozier. Like the mitre, both of these items can be used by other members of the Catholic clergy, but have a special significance for the pope.

The pallium is a circular piece of wool worn around the neck that has two additional pieces hanging down the front and back. Originally, a pallium was an everyday long tunic worn in ancient Greece, then it became a form of symbolic dress associated with the early Christians. By the 5th century, wearing the pallium was reserved the highest offices of Catholic clergy and the honor could only be given by the pope himself.

Today, only the pope and archbishops can wear the pallium. Each of the sacred objects is made from the wool of two lambs selected each year during the Feast of St. Agnus (in Latin, agnus means “lamb”). When an archbishop wears the pallium, it symbolizes his jurisdiction over a certain geographic area like a city or state. When the pope wears the pallium, it symbolizes his jurisdiction over the entire world.

Bellitto says that if the pope visits a city, the local archbishop will not wear his pallium as recognition of the pope’s ultimate authority.

The crozier is a shepherd’s crook that dates back to the staffs carried by Jesus’s original 12 disciples. By the 4th century, all new bishops were presented with a crozier as a symbol of their responsibility to care for the weakest among their flocks.

It wasn’t until the papacy of Paul VI in the late 1960s that the crozier was adopted as a papal symbol. Paul VI wanted to emphasize his role as the supreme “pastor” of the Church, so he chose to carry a silver staff crowned with a crucifix. Several popes since then have adopted the pastoral staff as one of the symbolic fixtures of their office.