Vatican City

Lore & Background

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. 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 complet

In Their Own Story

The morning mist clings to the cobblestones of St. Peter's Square as the first light strikes the bronze canopy of Bernini's colonnade. Inside the Basilica, a lone pilgrim kneels before the tomb of Saint Peter, the silence heavy with centuries of prayer. Above, the dome casts a long shadow over the city, a silent sentinel watching over the smallest nation on Earth, where the weight of history rests on every stone.

Reader's Guide

Vatican City contains religious and cultural sites such as St Peter's Basilica, the Sistine Chapel, the Vatican Apostolic Library, and the Vatican Museums. They feature some of the world's most famous paintings and sculptures. The economy of Vatican City is supported financially by donations from Catholic believers, by the sale of postage stamps and souvenirs, fees for admission to museums, and sales of publications. Vatican City has no taxes, and items are duty-free.

Did You Know?

• Vatican City is the smallest sovereign state in the world both by area and by population, with an area of 44 hectares (109 acres) and a population of about 882 in 2024.
• It is the only country in the world with a population of fewer than 1,000 people.
• The Vatican obelisk in St Peter's Square was originally brought from Heliopolis in Roman Egypt by the emperor Caligula and stood at the centre of the Circus of Nero.
• The name 'Vatican' is derived from an Etruscan settlement, Vatica or Vaticum.