The State Vatican city lies in Europe within the city of Rome and extends over a hill west of the Tiber. It is separated from the city by a wall. The Vatican City consists of St. Peter’s Basilica, St. Peter’s Square, the Vatican and the Vatican Gardens as well as the papal summer seat Castel Gandolfo. The magnificent St. Peter’s Basilica can be visited at certain times. Likewise that museum and the treasury.
The Piazzo San Pietro (St. Peter’s Square) was built by the architect Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini at the beginning of the 17th century. The Necropoli Precostantiniana below St. Peter’s Basilica are particularly worth seeing. To visit these excavations, however, a special permit is required, which must be applied for in advance and is usually only granted to people with a professional interest in excavations.
The Giardini Vaticani (Vatican Gardens) can be visited as part of a city tour or as a guided tour. To the right of St. Peter’s Basilica are the Palazzi Vaticani, the official residence of the Pope. The most important cultural treasures of the palace are the Stanze di Raffaello.
Only 829 people live in the Vatican. You can only get the Vatican citizenship for a certain period of time. It is only awarded by the Vatican itself and is inevitably linked to a function in the state.
The original citizenship remains in effect and comes into effect again after the end of the Vatican citizenship. There is only a very limited group of people who can receive Vatican citizenship. These include members of the Curia, members of the Pontifical Swiss Guard and the cardinals living in the Vatican in Rome. Anyone who receives special permission from the Pope can also live outside these groups of people in the Vatican.
Over 40 percent of the citizens of the Vatican do not live permanently in Vatican City or Rome. They are papal envoys or nuncios and are recognized as citizens of the Vatican for the duration of the office they hold for the Vatican.
Vatican climate
That climate in the Vatican is the same as in Rome, a temperate Mediterranean climate with mild,rainy winters and hot, dry summers from May to August. During this hot time, many citizens leave the Vatican and spend the summer outside the city, the Pope traditionally in Castello Gandolfo.
There are some local deviations from Rome in the Vatican, in particular fog and dew caused by the big building of St. Peter’s Basilica, fountain and the large paved square.
The average annual temperature is 16 ° C, the annual precipitation reaches 900 mm.
In July 2007 the Vatican announced that it wanted to become the first climate-neutral state. The plan is to create a forest in Hungary to offset carbon dioxide emissions.
Best travel time for the Vatican
Most travelers prefer the mild / warm periods between April and June and between September and October.
Vatican – key data
Area: 0.44 km² (smallest country in the world)
Population: 832 residents (July 2011, CIA). Composition: vaItalian and Swiss.
Population density: 1,891 people per km²
Population growth: 0.004% per year (2011, CIA)
Capital: none
Highest point: unnamed point, 75 m
Lowest point: unnamed point, 19 m
Form of government: The Vatican has been a sovereign diocese since 1929. The Apostolic Constitution dates from 2001.
Administrative division: none
Head of State: Cardinal Angelo Sodano (Cardinal Dean) and Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone (Cardinal Secretary of State), since February 28, 2013
Head of Government: De jure: vacant since February 28, 2013, de facto: Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Cardinal Bertone, (since May 10, 2008), President of the Governatorato Giovanni Lajolo (since September 15, 2006).
Language: The official languages in the Vatican are Italian and Latin, and French and various other languages are spoken.
Religion: Roman Catholic
Local time: CET. Between the last Sunday in March and the last Sunday in October there is summer time in the Vatican (CET + 1 hour).
The time difference to Central Europe is 0 h in both winter and summer.
International phone code: +3906
Internet identifier:.va
Mains voltage: 220 V, 50 Hz
Vatican Geography
The Vatican City, also known as the Vatican City State, is an independent city-state in the west of Rome and lies on the right bank of the Tiber. With a total area of 0.44 square kilometers, the Vatican City is the smallest recognized state in the world. After all, the capital has almost more than 800 residents, of which around 550 are also citizens of the Vatican City.
The territory of the Vatican city is on the fully walled Vatican Hill, one of the seven hills on which the city of Rome was built in ancient times.
The national territory of the Vatican City includes the Vatican, St., the Governor’s Palace, the Vatican Bank, the heliport and a small part of the audience hall. In addition, many other churches and buildings belong to the Vatican City, which are located on Italian territory in Rome, but have extraterritorial status own. These include San Giovanni in Laterano, Santa Maria Maggiore, San Paolo fuori le mura, Lateran, Palazzo della Cancelleria as well as the papal summer palace and the Villa Barberini in Castel Gandolfo.
Vatican – arrival
The entrance to the Vatican City is separated from Rome by the St. Anna Gate. The two main streets of the Vatican, Via del Pellegrino and Via di Belvedere, also begin there. The Vatican also has its own helipad and train station. However, this is primarily used for freight traffic and only rarely for passenger traffic. However, from time to time there are special trips forTour groups.
Vatican Landmarks
The Vatican has a large number of different sacred buildings. Visit sunglasseswill for Vatican City Travel Overview. One of the most famous is the Basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano. Although the basilica is located in a Roman part of the city, it is owned by the Vatican. The basilica is the real cathedral Rome and dates back to the fourth century. The Basilica of San Giovanni was built thanks to a donation from Constantine the First. It is also the actual seat of the Pope.
St. Peter’s Basilica, which was actually a St. Peter’s Church when it was built in 326, is one of the sacred buildings with a high degree of awareness of the state. It was built directly on the tomb of the apostle Peter. The construction of St. Peter’s Basilica began in 1452, but it took until 1623 for it to be completed. The house of God offers space for up to sixty thousand believers. Furthermore, St. Peter’s Basilica has a length of 211 meters and a height of 132 meters. The cathedral is considered to be the largest house of worship in the world. One of the sights not to be missed is the Sistine Chapel from the end of the fourteenth century. The chapel was named after Pope Sixtus.
Inside you can admire many beautiful frescoes by famous painters such as Botticelli, Michelangelo, Ghirlandoi and Perugini. During the papal election, the conclave takes place in the Sistine Chapel. There is a long list of other sacred buildings to visit in the Vatican.
The tower of the winds is one of the special technical buildings of the state. The tower was built by order of Pope Gregory XIII. built and now houses the first Vatican observatory.
You should have seen the Leonic walls, which are part of a medieval fortification. They used to cover a large part of the Vatican and the Roman district of Borgo. Unfortunately, today only ruins can be seen of the building built by Pope Leo IV in the ninth century.
The best preserved can be seen in the Vatican Gardens.
The audience hall is also worth seeing. It was built between 1964 and 1971 by order of Pope Paul VI. The extravagant roof construction is its most striking feature. The Vatican uses this building for extraordinary meetings of the Synod of Bishops and papal general audiences.
There are also a large number of different museums to visit in the Vatican.
A large collection of valuable religious artifacts can be viewed in the Collezione d’Arte Religiosa Moderna.
In the Gregorian Chant Museum in Eruszo you will find a large number of ancient Egyptian excavations, such as mummies, papyrus scrolls, etc. You can even visit the legendary Book of Death here.
The Storizo Vatikano Museum is worth a visit, although it is still a fairly young museum. Papal vehicles can be seen here as well as other means of transport. One of the highlights of the museum is the model of the first Vatican locomotive.
You should also have a look at the Vatican Art Gallery, in which works of art from the Middle Ages to the beginning of the nineteenth century can be viewed. Many works of art are the work of famous artists such as Raffael, Michelangelo and Angelico.
The Apostolic Palace (also Pope or Vatican Palace) is one of the special buildings of the Vatican State.
Since the return of the Popes from exile in Avignon in 1377, the living quarters of the Catholic head have been located in this very simple-looking building. The Apostolic Palace is thus also the official residence of the Holy Father. It has more than one thousand four hundred rooms, some of which are offices, museums and chapels.
In the Governor’s Palace you will find the seat of the papal Vatican City and institutions such as the postage stamp and mint office, post office and telegraph office. The palace also houses the Vatican Radio, as well as the daily newspaper and the guard corps.
One of the special places of the Vatican is St. Peter’s Square, which you should definitely not miss on your sightseeing tour. It was created by Gain Lorenzo Bernini in 1656-1667.
In the middle of the square is a 25.5 meter high obelisk, which is said to come from the Emperor Nero’s circus.
There are also two fountains in St. Peter’s Square that are true works of art. One was created by Carlo Maderna in 1613 and the one on the left is by Bernini in 1675.
Half of the Vatican is bordered by gardens, the total area of which is approximately forty-four hectares. Several important structures are enclosed by the fishbones and extend mainly in the west of the state.
The planting of the gardens consists primarily of original plants such as cedars, cypresses, pines, palms and pines.
In addition to the beautiful wells, the bones enclose structures worth seeing, such as B. the Leonine Wall, the Church of Santo Sklano degli Abissini, the Vatican Court, as well as the Tower of the Winds.
Guided tours are available for part of the Vatican Gardens. But you have to register in good time for such a tour.
The Pope’s summer residence is located twenty-four kilometers from Rome in the city of Castel Gandolfo. It includes three villas, a few gardens and even an inn. Since 1929 it has belonged to the extraterritorial property of the Holy See. The Vatican observatory Specula Vatikana, built in 1930, is attached to the Castel.
