Vatican City, officially the Vatican City State, is a landlocked sovereign city-state in Southern Europe. Ruled by the pope, it is an enclave within the city of Rome, Italy, and serves as the administrative centre of the Catholic Church. Vatican City is governed by the Holy See, the episcopal see of the Diocese of Rome and central authority of the church worldwide, which is itself a sovereign entity under international law.
Catholic theology holds that Saint Peter, an apostle of Jesus considered the first pope, was crucified on Vatican Hill in Rome during the 1st century AD. The Holy See first exercised temporal power over the Papal States, which formed on the Italian Peninsula with the donation of Frankish territory in 756. The pope returned to Rome at the end of the Avignon Papacy in 1377. Italian unification concluded with the capture of Rome by the Kingdom of Italy in 1870, after which the pope declared himself a "prisoner in the Vatican". The Roman question was settled in 1929 with the Lateran Treaty, which established the modern sovereign state of Vatican City.
With an area of 0.49 square kilometres (0.19 mi2) and population of about 882, Vatican City is both the smallest country by area and the least populous. It is an absolute monarchy under the pope, who is elected by the College of Cardinals through conclaves. The pope delegates authority to the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State, which acts as the state's legislative body.
Designated as a World Heritage Site, Vatican City includes numerous religious, historic, and cultural sites, including St. Peter's Basilica, the Sistine Chapel, the Apostolic Palace, the Vatican Library, and the Vatican Museums. On behalf of Vatican City, the Holy See maintains diplomatic relations with 180 states and is an observer state of the United Nations. Vatican City uses the euro as its official currency, issues its own euro coins, and is a de facto member of the Schengen Area.
Name
The name Vatican City was first used in the Lateran Treaty, signed on 11 February 1929, which established the modern city-state named after Vatican Hill, the geographic location of the state within the city of Rome. Vatican itself is derived from the name of an Etruscan settlement, Vatica or Vaticum, located in the general area the Romans called Ager Vaticanus ('Vatican territory').
The Italian-language name of the city is Città del Vaticano or, more formally, Stato della Città del Vaticano, meaning 'State of Vatican City'. Its Latin name is Status Civitatis Vaticanae; this is used in official documents by the Holy See, the Church and the pope.
History
Early history
The name "Vatican" was already in use in the time of the Roman Republic for the Ager Vaticanus, a marshy area on the west bank of the Tiber across from the city of Rome, located between the Janiculum, the Vatican Hill and Monte Mario, down to the Aventine Hill and up to the confluence of the Cremera creek. The toponym Ager Vaticanus is attested until the 1st century AD: afterwards, another toponym appeared, Vaticanus, denoting an area much more restricted: the Vatican Hill, today's St. Peter's Square, and possibly today's Via della Conciliazione. Because of its vicinity to Rome's archenemy, the Etruscan city of Veii (another naming for the Ager Vaticanus was Ripa Veientana or Ripa Etrusca), and for being subjected to the floods of the Tiber, the Romans considered this originally uninhabited part of Rome dismal and ominous.
The particularly low quality of Vatican wine, even after the reclamation of the area, was commented on by the poet Martial (AD 40 – c. AD 102). Tacitus wrote that in AD 69, the Year of the Four Emperors, when the northern army that brought Vitellius to power arrived in Rome, "a large proportion camped in the unhealthy districts of the Vatican, which resulted in many deaths among the common soldiery; and the Tiber being close by, the inability of the Gauls and Germans to bear the heat and the consequent greed with which they drank from the stream weakened their bodies, which were already an easy prey to disease".
During the Roman Empire, many villas were constructed there, after Agrippina the Elder (14 BC – 18 October AD 33) drained the area and laid out her gardens in the early-1st century AD. In AD 40 her son, the emperor Caligula, built in her gardens a circus for charioteers. It was later completed by the emperor Nero and named the Circus Gaii et Neronis, usually called, simply, the Circus of Nero.
The Vatican obelisk in St Peter's Square is the last visible remnant from the Circus of Nero. It was brought from Heliopolis in Roman Egypt by the emperor Caligula. The obelisk originally stood at the centre of the spina (median) of the Roman circus. The circus became the site of martyrdom for many Christians after the Great Fire of Rome in AD 64. Tradition states that it was in this circus that Saint Peter was crucified upside-down. In 1586, the obelisk was moved to its current position by Pope Sixtus V, using a method devised by the Italian architect Domenico Fontana.
Opposite the circus was a cemetery separated by the Via Cornelia. Funeral monuments, mausoleums, small tombs, and altars to pagan gods of all kinds of polytheistic religions, were constructed before the construction of the Constantinian Basilica of St. Peter in the first half of the 4th century. A shrine dedicated to the Phrygian goddess Cybele and her consort Attis remained active long after the ancient Basilica of St. Peter was built nearby. Remains of this ancient necropolis were discovered during renovations by popes throughout the centuries, increasing in frequency during the Renaissance until it was systematically excavated from 1939 to 1941 on the order of Pope Pius XII.
The Constantinian basilica was built in 326 over what was believed to be the tomb of Saint Peter, buried in that cemetery. From then on, the land mass became more populated in connection with activity at the basilica. A palace was constructed nearby as early as the 5th century during the pontificate of Pope Symmachus (reigned 498–514). The Leonine Wall was constructed by Pope Leo IV following the sacking by Muslim raiders of Old St. Peter's Basilica in 846.
Papal States
Popes gradually came to have a secular role as governors of regions near Rome. They ruled the Papal States, which covered a large portion of the Italian Peninsula, for more than a thousand years until the mid-19th century, when all the territory belonging to the papacy was seized by the newly created Kingdom of Italy.
For most of this time, the popes did not live at the Vatican. The Lateran Palace, on the opposite side of Rome, was their habitual residence for about a thousand years. From 1309 to 1377, they lived in Avignon in France. On their return to Rome, they chose to live at the Vatican. They moved to the Quirinal Palace in 1583, after work on it was completed under Pope Paul V (1605–1621). In 1870, after the capture of Rome, popes have lived in the Vatican. Their prior residence at the Quirinal Palace was taken over by the King of Italy.
Under Italian rule (1871–1929)
In 1870 the pope's holdings were left in an uncertain situation when Rome was annexed by Italian forces, bringing to completion the Italian unification, after a nominal resistance by the papal forces. Between 1861 and 1929, the status of the pope of Rome was referred to as the "Roman Question".
While Italy abstained from intervening within the immediate boundaries of the Vatican, the state systematically confiscated church property throughout the rest of the peninsula. In 1871 the Quirinal Palace was confiscated by the king of Italy and became the royal palace. Thereafter, the popes resided undisturbed within the Vatican walls, and certain papal prerogatives were recognized by the Law of Guarantees, including the right to send and receive ambassadors. The popes 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. Pope Pius IX (1846–1878), the last ruler of the Papal States, was referred to as a "prisoner in the Vatican". Forced to give up secular power, the popes focused on spiritual issues.
Lateran treaties
This situation was resolved on 11 February 1929, when the Lateran Treaty between the Holy See and the Kingdom of Italy was signed by Prime Minister and Head of Government Benito Mussolini on behalf of King Victor Emmanuel III and by Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Gasparri for Pope Pius XI. The treaty, which was ratified and took effect on 7 June 1929, established the independent state of Vatican City and reaffirmed the special status of Catholic Christianity in Italy.
World War II
The Holy See, which governed the Vatican City, pursued a policy of neutrality during World War II under the leadership of Pope Pius XII. German troops occupied Rome after the September 1943 Armistice of Cassibile, with Allied forces pushing them out in 1944. Both sides respected the Vatican City's status as neutral territory.
One of the main diplomatic priorities of Pius XII was to prevent the bombing of Rome. A high level of sensitivity led him to protest even the dropping of pamphlets over Rome by the Royal Air Force, claiming that the few which landed within the Vatican City violated its neutrality. The British government's policy towards the Vatican, as expressed in the minutes of a Cabinet meeting, was "that we should on no account molest the Vatican City, but that our action as regards the rest of Rome would depend upon how far the Italian government observed the rules of war".
After the United States entered into the war, US officials were against bombing the Vatican City, fearful of offending Catholic members of the American military, but said that "they could not stop the British from bombing Rome if the British so decided". The US military even exempted Catholic servicemembers from air raids on Rome and other areas with a significant Catholic presence, unless they voluntarily agreed to participate. Notably, with the exception of Rome, and presumably the possibility of the Vatican, no Catholic US servicemember refused a mission within German-held Italy. On the other hand, the British insisted "they would bomb Rome whenever the needs of the war demanded".
In December 1942, the British envoy to the Holy See suggested that Rome be declared an open city, a suggestion that the Holy See took more seriously than was probably meant by the envoy, who did not want Rome to be an open city. Mussolini rejected the suggestion when the Holy See put it to him. In connection with the Allied invasion of Sicily, 500 United States Army Air Forces aircraft bombed Rome on 19 July 1943, targeting Rome's railway hub in particular. Approximately 1,500 people were killed, and Pius XII, who had been described in the previous month as "worried sick" about the possibility of Rome being bombed, toured the affected areas. Another Allied bombing raid took place on 13 August 1943, after Mussolini had been ousted from power. The following day, the new Italian government declared Rome an open city, after consulting the Holy See on the wording of the declaration.
Post-war history
Pius XII refrained from creating cardinals during the war. By the end of World War II, there were several prominent vacancies: Cardinal Secretary of State, Camerlengo, Chancellor, and Prefect for the Congregation for the Religious among them. Pius XII created 32 cardinals in early 1946, having announced his intention to do so in his preceding Christmas message.
In 1970, the Pontifical Military Corps, except for the Swiss Guard, was disbanded by Paul VI. The Gendarmerie Corps was transformed into a civilian police and security force.
In 1984, a new concordat between the Holy See and Italy modified provisions of the earlier treaty, including the position of Catholic Christianity as the Italian state religion, a position given to it by a statute of the Kingdom of Sardinia of 1848.
In 1995, construction of a new guest house, Domus Sanctae Marthae, adjacent to St Peter's Basilica was criticized by Italian environmental groups, backed by Italian politicians. They claimed the new building would block views of the Basilica from nearby Italian apartments. For a short while the plans strained the relations between the Vatican and the Italian government. The head of the Vatican's Department of Technical Services robustly rejected challenges to the Vatican State's right to build within its borders.
Geography
Vatican City has a territory of 44 hectares (109 acres). The territory of Vatican City is part of the Vatican Hill, and of the adjacent former Vatican Fields. It is in this territory that St Peter's Basilica, the Apostolic Palace, the Sistine Chapel, and museums were built, along with other buildings. The area was part of the Roman rione of Borgo until 1929. Being separated from Rome, on the west bank of the river Tiber, the area was an outcrop of Rome that was protected by being included within the walls of Leo IV (847–855), and later expanded by the current fortification walls, built under Paul III (1534–1549), Pius IV (1559–1565), and Urban VIII (1623–1644).
When the Lateran Treaty of 1929 that gave the state its form was being prepared, the boundaries of the proposed territory were 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.