Vatican City

Vatican City, officially the Vatican City State, is a landlocked sovereign city-state in Southern Europe. Ruled by the pope, it is an enclave within the city of Rome, Italy, and serves as the administrative centre of the Catholic Church. Vatican City is governed by the Holy See, the episcopal see of the Diocese of Rome and central authority of the church worldwide, which is itself a sovereign entity under international law. Catholic theology holds that Saint Peter, an apostle of Jesus considered the first pope, was crucified on Vatican Hill in Rome during the 1st century AD. The Holy See first exercised temporal power over the Papal States, which formed on the Italian Peninsula with the donation of Frankish territory in 756. The pope returned to Rome at the end of the Avignon Papacy in 1377. Italian unification concluded with the capture of Rome by the Kingdom of Italy in 1870, after which the pope declared himself a "prisoner in the Vatican". The Roman question was settled in 1929 with the Lateran Treaty, which established the modern sovereign state of Vatican City. With an area of 0.49 square kilometres (0.19 mi2) and population of about 882, Vatican City is both the smallest country by area and the least populous. It is an absolute monarchy under the pope, who is elected by the College of Cardinals through conclaves. The pope delegates authority to the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State, which acts as the state's legislative body. Designated as a World Heritage Site, Vatican City includes numerous religious, historic, and cultural sites, including St. Peter's Basilica, the Sistine Chapel, the Apostolic Palace, the Vatican Library, and the Vatican Museums. On behalf of Vatican City, the Holy See maintains diplomatic relations with 180 states and is an observer state of the United Nations. Vatican City uses the euro as its official currency, issues its own euro coins, and is a de facto member of the Schengen Area.

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