The Vatican City State is a landlocked independent country, city-state, and enclave within Rome, Italy. With an area of 49 hectares (121 acres) and a population of about 764 (2023 est.) it is the smallest state in the world both by area and by population.
As governed by the Holy See, Vatican City State is ruled by the Pope, who is the bishop of Rome and head of the Catholic Church. The Holy See dates back to early Christianity and is the principal episcopal see of the Catholic Church.
During the Roman Empire, many villas were constructed there, after Agrippina the Elder drained the area and laid out her gardens in the early 1st century AD. In AD 40, her son, Emperor Caligula built in her gardens a circus for charioteers (AD 40) that was later completed by Nero. The Vatican obelisk in St. Peter’s Square is the last visible remnant from the Circus of Nero. It was brought from Heliopolis in Egypt by Emperor Caligula.
After the fall of western Roman Empire the Popes gradually came to have a secular role as governors of regions near Rome. They ruled the Papal States, which covered a large portion of the Italian peninsula, for more than a thousand years until the mid-19th century, when all the territory belonging to the papacy was seized by the newly created Kingdom of Italy.
In 1870, the Pope’s holdings were left in an uncertain situation when Rome itself was annexed by Italian forces, thus bringing to completion the Italian unification, after a nominal resistance by the papal forces. Between 1861 and 1929 the status of the Pope was referred to as the “Roman Question”. Italy made no attempt to interfere with the Holy See within the Vatican walls and certain papal prerogatives were recognised by the Law of Guarantees, including the right to send and receive ambassadors.
This situation was resolved on 11 February 1929, when the Lateran Treaty between the Holy See and the Kingdom of Italy was signed by Prime Minister and Head of Government Benito Mussolini on behalf of King Victor Emmanuel III and by Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Gasparri for Pope Pius XI. The treaty, which became effective on 7 June 1929, established the independent state of Vatican City and reaffirmed the special status of Catholic Christianity in Italy.
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