THE VATICAN CITY :
Vatican City is an independent city-state & enclave surrounded by Rome, Italy & is the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church. Also known simply as the Vatican, the state became independent from Italy in 1929 with the Lateran Treaty,& it is a distinct territory under “full ownership, exclusive dominion, and sovereign authority and jurisdiction” of the Holy See, itself a sovereign entity of international law, which maintains the city state’s temporal, diplomatic, & spiritual independence. It’s home to the Pope & a trove of iconic art and architecture. Its Vatican Museums house ancient Roman sculptures such as the famed “Laocoön and His Sons” as well as Renaissance frescoes in the Raphael Rooms & the Sistine Chapel, famous for Michelangelo’s ceiling.The Vatican City is a world famous religious sight, home to the Pope and some truly breath-taking architecture.
But there’s plenty more to the place, and the Gray Line Rome are happy to share with us 10 fun facts about Vatican City we may not know:–
-It’s the Smallest Country in the World.
–As of 2011, the population of the Vatican numbered just 594. This is by far the smallest nation in the world. It also attracts more tourists than anywhere else in the world with nearly 5 ½ million visitors each year.
–There’s an ATM with instructions in Latin .Belonging to the Vatican bank, this has to be the only ATM with Latin instructions in the world. How many people have struggled to withdraw money from this ATM?
–It owns a telescope in Arizona, USA .With light pollution increasing in Rome, it became increasingly difficult to use the Vatican’s Observatory located 15 miles outside of the city. So, in 1981 the Vatican purchased a state of the art telescope that sits on top of Mount Graham in southeast Arizona.
–It has its own army. Known officially as the Pontifical Swiss Guard, this army is only 135 people strong. They were a uniform that looks like it hasn’t been changed since the Renaissance, but they do have modern military training too.
–It has its own football team.The Vatican football team consists entirely of employees of the tiny country. Police officers, postal workers, and members of the Swiss Guard have all been known to wear the team colours of yellow, blue, and white.
–It has the world’s shortest railway .With just two 300-metre tracks and one station, the Vatican’s railway network is the shortest in the world. It’s used for importing goods and for ceremonial purposes and there are no regular passenger trains scheduled.
–It drinks more wine than anywhere else in the world. An average Vatican resident consumes 54.26 litres of wine every year, giving this country the highest wine consumption rate per capita in the world.
–The Vatican approved of the Bond movie ‘Skyfall’ .The Vatican approved of the Bond movie ‘Skyfall’ saying that Daniel Craig’s Bond was ‘more human’, ‘less of a cliché’,& ‘less attracted to the pleasures of life’. The Vatican doesn’t like the Beatles.Vatican condemned the Beatles after John Lennon’s infamous ‘we’re more popular than Jesus’ statement. Although the Vatican has since officially forgiven the famous Liverpudlian band.
–It is the only UNESCO world heritage country.
–Italy has more UNESCO world heritage sites than anywhere else in the world (a great reason to book an Italy trip), but the Vatican is the only country to be entirely designated as a world heritage site. As it’s located in the centre of Rome, it’s easy to get to. It’s full of artistic masterpieces from famous painters like Michelangelo and Raphael, and with all of the above facts in mind, it’s clearly a quirky place like no other.
SAINT PETER’S BASILICA :
The Papal Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican, or simply Saint Peter’s Basilica, is a church built in the Renaissance style located in Vatican City, the papal enclave that is within the city of Rome, Italy. It was initially planned by Pope Nicholas V and then Pope Julius II to replace the aging Old St. Peter’s Basilica, which was built in the fourth century by Roman emperor Constantine the Great. Construction of the present basilica began on 18 April 1506 and was completed on 18 November 1626. Designed principally by Donato Bramante, Michelangelo, Carlo Maderno and Gian Lorenzo Bernini, St. Peter’s is the most renowned work of Renaissance architecture and the largest church in the world by interior measure. While it is neither the mother church of the Catholic Church nor the cathedral of the Diocese of Rome, St. Peter’s is regarded as one of the holiest Catholic shrines. It has been described as “holding a unique position in the Christian world” and as “the greatest of all churches of Christendom.” Catholic tradition holds that the basilica is the burial site of Saint Peter, chief among Jesus’s apostles and also the first Bishop of Rome.
SAINT PETER’S SQUARE (Italian: Piazza San Pietro)
Its a large plaza located directly in front of St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, the papal enclave inside Rome, directly west of the neighborhood of Borgo. Both the square & the basilica are named after Saint Peter, an apostle of Jesus whom Catholics consider to be the first Pope. At the centre of the square is an ancient Egyptian obelisk, erected at the current site in 1586. Gian Lorenzo Bernini designed the square almost 100 years later, including the massive Doric colonnades, four columns deep, which embrace visitors in “the maternal arms of Mother Church”. A granite fountain constructed by Bernini in 1675 matches another fountain designed by Carlo Maderno in 1613.
THE VATICAN MUSEUMS :(Italian: Musei Vaticani; Latin: Musea Vaticana)
They are the public museums of the Vatican City. They display works from the immense collection amassed by the Catholic Church and the papacy throughout the centuries, including several of the most renowned Roman sculptures and most important masterpieces of Renaissance art in the world. The museums contain roughly 70,000 works, of which 20,000 are on display, and currently employ 640 people who work in 40 different administrative, scholarly, and restoration departments.
Pope Julius II founded the museums in the early 16th century. The Sistine Chapel, with its ceiling and altar wall decorated by Michelangelo, and the Stanze di Raffaello (decorated by Raphael) are on the visitor route through the Vatican Museums. There are 24 galleries, or rooms, in total, with the Sistine Chapel, notably, being the last room visited within the Museum.
My dear readers may kindly point out any incorrect information in my above writeup needing any corrections! I am truly indebted to Wikipedia & for the invaluable information on the subject !Happy Reading !
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