Vatican City

Vatican City State

The world's smallest sovereign state, the Vatican is the seat of an institution that shaped Europe's law, art and morals for two millennia.

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Heritage

St Peter's Basilica is built over what tradition identifies as the apostle's tomb. The Apostolic Library holds 80,000 manuscripts, including some of the oldest witnesses to the biblical text; the Archives open to researchers holdings covering eight centuries of European diplomacy.

History

The Papal States, formed from the eighth century, made the pope a temporal as well as spiritual sovereign. Their disappearance in 1870 during Italian unification opened a “Roman question” lasting nearly sixty years.

The Lateran Accords, signed on 11 February 1929, created Vatican City State on 44 hectares and settled the dispute. The Holy See, a distinct subject of international law, maintains diplomatic relations with almost every state and holds observer status at the UN.

The Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) profoundly reformed the liturgy and the Church's relationship to the modern world, religious freedom and Judaism. The Vatican uses the euro under a monetary convention with the Union and mints its own coins.

Milestones

64 Christianisation

Martyrdom of Peter

Tradition places the apostle’s death and tomb at the Vatican; the basilica follows from it.

756 Middle Ages

Birth of the Papal States

The Donation of Pepin founds a temporal power that will last eleven centuries.

1506 Renaissance and Reformations

Building of St Peter’s

Bramante, Michelangelo then Bernini build the largest Christian edifice in the world.

1929 Contemporary period

Lateran Accords

Vatican City State is created; the Roman question is closed.

1962 Contemporary period

Second Vatican Council

The Church reforms its liturgy and redefines its relations with the modern world and Judaism.

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