Popes ruled over a collection of sovereign Papal States throughout central Italy until the country was unified in 1870. For nearly 60 years in the 1800s and 1900s, popes refused to leave the Vatican. Peter’s Square, where it does double duty as a giant sundial.Ĥ. In 1586 it was moved to its present location in St. The obelisk, made of a single piece of red granite weighing more than 350 tons, was erected for an Egyptian pharaoh more than 3,000 years ago. To crown the center of the amphitheater, Caligula had his forces transport from Egypt a pylon that had originally stood in Heliopolis. Roman Emperor Caligula built a small circus in his mother’s gardens at the base of Vatican Hill where charioteers trained and where Nero is thought to have martyred the Christians. Caligula captured the obelisk that stands in St. The present basilica, built starting in the 1500s, sits over a maze of catacombs and St. By the fourth century and official recognition of the Christian religion in Rome, Emperor Constantine began construction of the original basilica atop the ancient burial ground with what was believed to be the tomb of St. Peter-disciple of Jesus Christ, leader of the Apostles and the first bishop of Rome-who was supposedly buried in a shallow grave on Vatican Hill. He executed them by burning them at the stake, tearing them apart with wild beasts and crucifying them. 64, Emperor Nero, seeking to shift blame from himself, accused the Christians of starting the blaze. When a great fire leveled much of Rome in A.D. Peter’s Basilica sits atop a city of the dead, including its namesake’s tomb.Ī Roman necropolis stood on Vatican Hill in pagan times. Museum admission fees, stamp and souvenir sales, and contributions generate the Vatican’s revenue.Ģ. One government function it lacks: taxation. The Vatican mints its own euros, prints its own stamps, issues passports and license plates, operates media outlets and has its own flag and anthem. Vatican City is governed as an absolute monarchy with the pope at its head. Vatican City is the smallest country in the world.Įncircled by a 2-mile border with Italy, Vatican City is an independent city-state that covers just over 100 acres, making it one-eighth the size of New York’s Central Park.
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