Vatican City /ˈvætɪkən ˈsɪti/ (help·info), officially
the State of the Vatican City (Italian: Stato della Città del
Vaticano, Italian pronunciation: [ˈsta(ː)to della tʃitˈta del
vatiˈka(ː)no]), is a landlocked sovereign city-state whose
territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome,
the capital city of Italy. At approximately 44 hectares (110
acres) (0.44 km2), and with a population of over 800, it is the
smallest country in the world by area.
Vatican City is a city-state that came into existence in
1929. It is distinct from the Holy See, which dates back to
early Christianity and is the main episcopal see of 1.142
billion Roman Catholic and Eastern Catholic adherents from
around the globe. Ordinances of Vatican City are published in
Italian; official documents of the Holy See are issued mainly in
Latin. The two entities even have distinct passports: the Holy
See, not being a country, only issues diplomatic and service
passports; the state of Vatican City issues normal passports. In
both cases the passports issued are very few.
The Lateran Treaty in 1929, which brought the city-state into
existence, spoke of it as a new creation (Preamble and Article
III), not as a vestige of the much larger Papal States
(756-1870) that had previously encompassed central Italy. Most
of this territory was absorbed into the Kingdom of Italy in
1860, and the final portion, namely the city of Rome with a
small area close to it, ten years later, in 1870.
Vatican City is an ecclesiastical or sacerdotal-monarchical
state, ruled by the bishop of Rome—the Pope. The highest state
functionaries are all Catholic clergymen of various racial,
ethnic and national backgrounds. It is the sovereign territory
of the Holy See (Sancta Sedes) and the location of the Pope's
residence, referred to as the Apostolic Palace.
The Popes have resided in the area that in 1929 became
Vatican City since the return from Avignon in 1377. Previously,
they resided in the Lateran Palace on the Caelian Hill on the
opposite side of Rome, which site Constantine gave to Pope
Miltiades in 313. The signing of the agreements that established
the new state took place in the latter building, giving rise to
the name of Lateran Pacts, by which they are known.
The name "Vatican" is ancient and predates Christianity,
coming from the Latin Mons Vaticanus, meaning Vatican Mount. The
territory of Vatican City is part of the Mons Vaticanus, and of
the adjacent former Vatican Fields where St. Peter's Basilica,
the Apostolic Palace, the Sistine Chapel, and museums were
built, along with various other buildings. The area was part of
the Roman rione of Borgo until 1929. Being separated from the
city, on the west bank of the Tiber river, the area was an
outcrop of the city that was protected by being included within
the walls of Leo IV, and later expanded by the current
fortification walls of Paul III/Pius IV/Urban VIII. When the
Lateran Treaty of 1929 that gave the state its present form was
being prepared, the boundaries of the proposed territory was
influenced by the fact that much of it was all but enclosed by
this loop. For some tracts of the frontier, there was no wall,
but the line of certain buildings supplied part of the boundary,
and for a small part of the frontier a modern wall was
constructed. The territory includes St. Peter's Square,
distinguished from the territory of Italy only by a white line
along the limit of the square, where it touches Piazza Pio XII.
St. Peter's Square is reached through the Via della
Conciliazione which runs from the Tiber River to St. Peter's.
This grand approach was constructed by Benito Mussolini after
the conclusion of the Lateran Treaty.
According to the Lateran Treaty, certain properties of the
Holy See that are located in Italian territory, most notably
Castel Gandolfo and the major basilicas, enjoy extraterritorial
status similar to that of foreign embassies. These properties,
scattered all over Rome and Italy, house essential offices and
institutions necessary to the character and mission of the Holy
See.
Castel Gandolfo and the named basilicas are patrolled
internally by police agents of Vatican City State and not by
Italian police. St. Peter's Square is ordinarily policed jointly
by both.
In this originally uninhabited area (the ager vaticanus) on
the opposite side of the Tiber from the city of Rome, Agrippina
the Elder (14 BC – 18 October AD 33) drained the hill and
environs and built her gardens in the early 1st century AD.
Emperor Caligula (37-41) started construction of a circus (40)
that was later completed by Nero, the Circus Gaii et Neronis,
usually called, simply, the Circus of Nero. The Vatican obelisk
was originally taken by Caligula from Heliopolis, Egypt to
decorate the spina of his circus and is thus its last visible
remnant. This area became the site of martyrdom of many
Christians after the great fire of Rome in 64. Ancient tradition
holds that it was in this circus that Saint Peter was crucified
upside down. Opposite the circus was a cemetery separated by the
Via Cornelia. Funeral monuments and mausoleums and small tombs
as well as altars to pagan gods of all kinds of polytheistic
religions were constructed lasting until before the construction
of the Constantinian Basilica of St. Peter's in the first half
of the 4th century. Remains of this ancient necropolis were
brought to light sporadically during renovations by various
popes throughout the centuries increasing in frequency during
the Renaissance until it was systematically excavated by orders
of Pope Pius XII from 1939 to 1941.
In 326, the first church, the Constantinian basilica, was
built over the site that early Roman Catholic apologists (from
the first century on) as well as noted Italian archaeologists
argue was the tomb of Saint Peter, buried in a common cemetery
on the spot. From then on the area started to become more
populated, but mostly only by dwelling houses connected with the
activity of St. Peter's. A palace was constructed near the site
of the basilica as early as the 5th century during the
pontificate of Pope Symmachus (pope 498-514).
Popes in their secular role gradually came to govern
neighbouring regions and, through the Papal States, ruled a
large portion of the Italian peninsula for more than a thousand
years until the mid 19th century, when all of the territory of
the Papal States was seized by the newly created Kingdom of
Italy. For much of this time the Vatican was not the habitual
residence of the Popes, but rather the Lateran Palace, and in
recent centuries, the Quirinal Palace, while the residence from
1309-1377 was at Avignon in France.
In 1870, the Pope's holdings were left in an uncertain
situation when Rome itself was annexed by the Piedmont-led
forces which had united the rest of Italy, after a nominal
resistance by the papal forces. Between 1861 and 1929 the status
of the Pope was referred to as the "Roman Question". They were
undisturbed in their palace, and given certain recognitions by
the Law of Guarantees, including the right to send and receive
ambassadors. But they did not recognize the Italian king's right
to rule in Rome, and they refused to leave the Vatican compound
until the dispute was resolved in 1929. Other states continued
to maintain international recognition of the Holy See as a
sovereign entity. In practice Italy made no attempt to interfere
with the Holy See within the Vatican walls. However, they
confiscated church property in many other places, including,
perhaps most notably, the Quirinal Palace, formerly the pope's
official residence. Pope Pius IX (1846-1878), the last ruler of
the Papal States, claimed that after Rome was annexed he was a
"Prisoner in the Vatican". This situation was resolved on 11
February 1929 between the Holy See and the Kingdom of Italy.
The treaty was signed by Benito Mussolini on behalf of King
Victor Emmanuel III and by Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro
Gasparri for Pope Pius XI. The Lateran Treaty and the Concordat
established the independent State of the Vatican City and
granted Roman Catholicism special status in Italy. In 1984, a
new concordat between the Holy See and Italy modified certain
provisions of the earlier treaty, including the position of
Roman Catholicism as the Italian state religion.
