Italy–Vatican City border

From Papal States to 0.44 km²

The popes once ruled much of central Italy: the Donation of Pippin in 754 gave them rights over large parts of it, and in the 9th century Pope Leo IV completed the first walls around the Vatican. As Italy unified, the church lost its land; Italy had annexed the rest of the Papal States by 1870 and made Rome its capital. In protest, each pope stayed a voluntary “prisoner of the Vatican” for nearly 60 years.^[1]

In 1929 the Lateran Treaty with Italy’s Fascist government recognised Vatican City’s independent sovereignty. It is an enclave in Rome on the west bank of the Tiber, covering 0.44 km², and more than 10 buildings in Rome and the papal summer residence at Castel Gandolfo have extraterritorial privileges.^[1]

A walled frontier

Vatican City’s medieval and Renaissance walls form its boundaries, except on the south-east at St Peter’s Square. Of its six entrances, only three are open to the public: the square, the Arch of the Bells in the façade of St Peter’s Basilica, and the entrance to the Vatican Museums in the north wall. Almost everything, from food and water to electricity and gas, has to be brought in.^[1]

“Vatican City’s medieval and Renaissance walls form its boundaries, except on the southeast at St. Peter’s Square”^[1]