Vatican City, officially theVatican City State (Italian:Stato della Città del Vaticano;Latin:Status Civitatis Vaticanae), often shortened asthe Vatican, is alandlocked sovereigncity-state. Ruled by thepope, it is anenclave withinRome and serves as the administrative centre of theCatholic Church. Vatican City is governed by theSee ofRome, commonly known as theHoly See, itself asovereign entity under international law, which maintainsits temporal power, governance, diplomacy, and spiritual independence.Vatican is also used as ametonym for the Holy See, which is the central governing body of the Catholic Church and Vatican City, comprising the pope and theRoman Curia. The independent state of Vatican City came into existence in 1929 via theLateran Treaty between the Holy See and theKingdom of Italy, which spoke of it as a new creation, not as a vestige of the much largerPapal States (756–1870), which had previously encompassed much ofCentral Italy.
TheLateran Palace (Italian:Palazzo Laterano), formally theApostolic Palace of the Lateran (Italian:Palazzo Apostolico Lateranense), is an ancientpalace of theRoman Empire and later the mainPapal residence.
From the fourth century, the Palace of the Lateran on Piazza San Giovanni in southeastRome was the principal residence of the Popes, and continued so for about a thousand years.
Image 3TheApostolic Palace (Palazzo Apostolico), the official residence of the pope. Here,Benedict XVI is at the window marked by a maroon banner hanging from the windowsill at centre. (fromVatican City)
Image 4A view of St. Peter's Square from the top of Michelangelo's dome (fromVatican City)
Image 12The Loggia of the Casino of Pius IV, a Renaissance building located in the Vatican Gardens. The Casino of Pius IV was built in the mid-16th century by architect Pirro Ligorio for Pope Pius IV. (fromGardens of Vatican City)
Image 13The Seal of Vatican City. Note the use of the Italian language (fromVatican City)
Image 16Pope Pius XI decree and conferment of Saint Therese of France to be Patroness of the gardens, flanked by CardinalLouis Billot. The Leonine walls, 17 May 1927. (fromGardens of Vatican City)
Image 26Torre San Giovanni, on an ancient wall originally built by Pope Nicholas III. The tower fell into disuse in the 16th century but was rebuilt in the early 1960s by Pope John XXIII. (fromGardens of Vatican City)
Image 27View of Vatican City in the evening (fromVatican City)
Image 38Map of the Italian peninsula in 1796, showing the Papal States in central Italy coloured purple (fromVatican City)
Image 39A monument toFr. Maximilian Kolbe, among the estimated 3,000 members (18%) of the Polish clergy who were killed by the Nazis; of these, 1,992 died in concentration camps. (fromVatican City during World War II)
... that the Vatican selectedMary Milligan in 1987 to be one of only three U.S. experts to assist the International Synod of Bishops on the Laity in Rome?
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