Vatican City

From the Papal States

For more than a thousand years the popes ruled a state across central Italy, the Papal States, whose legal basis was the Donation of Pippin of 754.^[2] As Italy unified in the 19th century it took them piece by piece, and by 1870 it had annexed the rest, Rome included, and made Rome its capital.^[2]

The popes refused to accept it. In protest, each pope from then on remained a voluntary “prisoner of the Vatican”, never leaving the papal grounds.^[2]

The 1929 deal

The Lateran Treaty, signed by Benito Mussolini for Italy and Cardinal Pietro Gasparri for the papacy, settled the question in 1929. The papacy recognised Italy, with Rome as its capital, and Italy recognised papal sovereignty over Vatican City, a territory of 44 hectares, and the pope’s full independence.^[1]

A concordat signed with it made Catholicism Italy’s state religion, with church marriage recognised by the state and religious teaching in schools; a new concordat of 1985 ended that.^[1]

A walled country

Vatican City is an enclave in Rome on the west bank of the Tiber. Medieval and Renaissance walls form its border everywhere except on the south-east, where it opens onto St Peter’s Square. Of its six entrances, three are open to the public: the square, the Arch of the Bells in the basilica’s facade, and the entrance to the museums in the north wall.^[2]

It has its own telephone system, post office, radio station, bank, pharmacy and observatory, and Swiss Guards have protected the pope since 1506. Almost everything, from food and water to electricity, comes in from Italy. Beyond its walls, more than 10 buildings in Rome and the papal summer residence at Castel Gandolfo enjoy special extraterritorial privileges.^[2]

“centre of the Catholic world and place of pilgrimage”^[1]