Portal:Vatican City

Welcome to the Vatican City Portal

Vatican City, officially the Vatican City State (Italian: Stato della Città del Vaticano; Latin: Status Civitatis Vaticanae), is a landlocked sovereign state and city-state. It is an enclave within Rome, seat of the Catholic Church, and serves as the administrative centre of the Catholic Church. It became independent from the Kingdom of Italy in 1929 with the Lateran Treaty. Vatican City is governed by the See of Rome, commonly known as the Holy See, itself a sovereign entity under international law, which maintains its temporal power, governance, diplomacy, and spiritual independence. Vatican is also used as a metonym for the Holy See, which is the central governing body of the Catholic Church and Vatican City, comprising the pope and the Roman Curia.

With an area of 49 hectares (121 acres) and a population of about 882 in 2024, it is the smallest sovereign state in the world both by area and by population. It is among the least populated capitals in the world. As governed by the Holy See, Vatican City State is an ecclesiastical or sacerdotal-monarchical state ruled by the pope, who is the bishop of Rome and head of the Catholic Church. The highest state functionaries are all Catholic clergy of various origins. After the Avignon Papacy (1309– 1377) the popes have mainly resided at the Apostolic Palace within what is now Vatican City, although at times residing instead in the Quirinal Palace in Rome or elsewhere. (Full article...)

Selected article

.va is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the State of the Vatican City. It is administered by the Internet Office of the Holy See.

There are 23 easily found names starting with "www" in the va zone, listed below. There are many more subdomains for email only^[1]

Second-level domains are not available to the public.

Name and email servers within the .va namespace include john.vatican.va (DNS and email), michael.vatican.va (DNS), paul.vatican.va (email), lists.vatican.va (email), and vatiradio.va (email).

Strangely enough, some offsite secondary DNS servers used by the Vatican are named after Egyptian gods, like:

seth.namex.it.
osiris.namex.it.

Selected image

Vatican during the Savoyard Era 1870-1929 describes the relation of the Vatican to Italy, after 1870, which marked the end of the Papal State and 1929, when the papacy regained autonomy in the Lateran Treaty.

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Vatican City

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Buildings and structures in Vatican City

Culture of Vatican City

Economy of Vatican City

Education in Vatican City

Environment of Vatican City

Geography of Vatican City

Government of Vatican City

Health in Vatican City

History of Vatican City

Organizations based in Vatican City

Vatican City people

Politics of Vatican City

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Sport in Vatican City

Vatican City stubs

General images -

The following are images from various Vatican City-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Vatican Gardens (from Gardens of Vatican City)
Image 2A map of the United Nations member states (from Vatican City)
Image 3Map of Vatican City (from Geography of Vatican City)
Image 4The territory of Vatican City State according to the Lateran Treaty (from Vatican City)
Image 5Polish ambassador to the Vatican, Kazimierz Papée, was critical of Pius XII's pre-war mediation efforts. (from Vatican City during World War II)
Image 6Part of the Vatican Gardens (from Gardens of Vatican City)
Image 7Cesare Orsenigo (left, with Hitler and Ribbentrop), nuncio to Germany, also served as de facto nuncio to Poland. (from Vatican City during World War II)
Image 8View of Vatican City in the evening. (from Vatican City)
Image 9The Vatican's post office was established in February 1929. (from Vatican City)
Image 10The Palace of the Governorate of Vatican City State (from Vatican City)
Image 11A monument to Fr. 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. (from Vatican City during World War II)
Image 12St. Peter's Basilica is one of the most renowned works of Renaissance architecture. (from Vatican City)
Image 13A map of Vatican City, highlighting notable buildings and the Vatican gardens (from Vatican City)
Image 14The Vatican obelisk in St. Peter's Square was brought to Rome from Egypt by Caligula. (from Vatican City)
Image 15Members of the Canadian Royal 22nd Regiment in audience with Pope Pius XII, following the 1944 Liberation of Rome. (from Vatican City during World War II)
Image 16President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama meet with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican on July 10, 2009. (from Women in Vatican City)
Image 17The shortest national railway system in the world (from Vatican City)
Image 18Italian Garden (from Gardens of Vatican City)
Image 19A pay phone in the Vatican City (from Vatican City)
Image 20The Apostolic 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. (from Vatican City)
Image 21A Vatican gendarmerie car (from Vatican City)
Image 22Musicians of the British Army's 38th (Irish) Brigade playing in front of St. Peter's Basilica in June 1944 (from Vatican City)
Image 23The Italian peninsula in 1796. The Papal States in central Italy are coloured purple. (from Vatican City)
Image 24Pope Pius XI decree and conferment of Saint Therese of France to be Patroness of the gardens, flanked by Cardinal Louis Billot. The Leonine walls, 17 May 1927. (from Gardens of Vatican City)
Image 25The Pontifical Academy of Sciences and the Casina Pio IV. (from Vatican City)
Image 26A view of the Gardens of Vatican City (from Geography of Vatican City)
Image 27Armenian cross monument (Khatchkar) inside the Vatican Gardens (from Gardens of Vatican City)
Image 28Vatican Museums' "New Wing", built by Raffaele Stern (1774–1820) (from Vatican City)
Image 29The Ingresso di Sant'Anna, an entrance to Vatican City from Italy (from Vatican City)
Image 30Pope Leo XIV, 2025 (from Vatican City)
Image 31The crowds of tourists in St. Peter's Square are a target for pickpockets. (from Vatican City)
Image 32A guard of the Vatican at his sentry box (from Vatican City)
Image 33The Fountain of the Eagle "Fontana dell'Aquilone" in the Vatican Gardens (from Gardens of Vatican City)
Image 34One possible modern interpretation (from Vatican City)
Image 35An early interpretation of the relative locations of the circus, and the medieval and current Basilicas of St. Peter (from Vatican City)
Image 36Bernardino Nogara, the chief Vatican financier during the war (from Vatican City during World War II)
Image 37The Seal of Vatican City. Note the use of the Italian language. (from Vatican City)
Image 38An ATM in Vatican City with Latin instructions (from Economy of Vatican City)
Image 39Empress Saint Helena of Constantinople carrying the One True Cross laying the grounds for the gardens using the sacred soil from Mount Calvary. (from Gardens of Vatican City)
Image 40The Vatican City came into existence in 1929, a decade before the start of World War II (from Vatican City during World War II)
Image 41The crowds of tourists in St. Peter's Square are a target for pickpockets. (from Crime in Vatican City)
Image 42A souvenir shop on the roof of St. Peter's Basilica (from Economy of Vatican City)
Image 43Palace of the Governorate of Vatican City State (from Gardens of Vatican City)
Image 44A view of St. Peter's Square from the top of Michelangelo's dome (from Vatican City)
Image 45Enlargeable, detailed map of Vatican City (from Geography of Vatican City)

Did you know?

... that sport in Vatican City has included cricket, calcio fiorentino, and taekwondo?
... that Vatican Cycling is the first Vatican sports governing body to be recognized by a world governing body?
... that the Vatican selected Mary Milligan in 1987 to be one of only three U.S. experts to assist the International Synod of Bishops on the Laity in Rome?
... that Sans's boss theme, "Megalovania", was played at the Vatican as part of a circus act during an audience with Pope Francis?
... that one incident in Vatican City caused it to have the highest murder rate in the world in 1998?
... that some Catholics considered Tom Lehrer's "The Vatican Rag" (audio featured) to be blasphemous?

... that Bishop Aloisius Muench, the liaison between the Vatican and the U.S. post-war occupation authority in Germany, referred to the latter as "other Hitlers in disguise"?

...that Clemente Micara was the Vatican’s first envoy to Czechoslovakia?

...that Clemente Micara was the Vatican’s first envoy to Czechoslovakia?

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Vatican City

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Selected panorama

Vatican Palace: the gardens from the museum.

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External Resources

Homepage of The Vatican

Sources

^ "VA Zone File". Robert Baskerville's ccTLD analysis data. 2007-12-28. Archived from the original on 19 January 2008. Retrieved 2007-12-28.

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[1] "VA Zone File". Robert Baskerville's ccTLD analysis data. 2007-12-28. Archived from the original on 19 January 2008. Retrieved 2007-12-28.

[1]