Vatican City

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Status Civitatis Vaticanæ
Stato della Città del Vaticano
State of the Vatican City

(Flag) (Coat of Arms)
Motto: None
Anthem: Inno e Marcia Pontificale
Capital	Vatican City1 41°54′N 12°27′E
Largest city	Vatican City1
Official languages	Latin2
Government Head of State Secretary of State Governor	Absolute monarchy Pope Benedict XVI Angelo Cardinal Sodano Edmund Cardinal Szoka
Independence -Treaty signed	Lateran Treaties 11 February 1929
Area  • Total  • Water (%)	0.44 km² (194th) 0.0
Population  • 2005 est.  • Density	921 (193rd) 2,093/km² (3rd)
Currency	Euro (EUR)
Time zone  • Summer (DST)	CET (UTC+1) CEST (UTC+2)
Internet TLD	.va
Calling code	+379
1Vatican City is a city-state. 2Italian is commonly used.

The Vatican City is the smallest country in the world (0,44 km²) and it is in Italian territory (inside Italy), totally included in the city of Rome. It was created as country on February 11 1929, with the "Patti Lateranensi" (Lateran Agreement), written by Benito Mussolini and Pope Pius XI. Though little, it is very important because it is and represents the centre of the whole Christianity and more specifically Catholicism. The Head of State is the Pope, now Benedict XVI, former cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, elected on April 19 2005, after Pope John Paul II's 26 years of Papacy. It is important also by the side of culture and art: its masterpieces are known by everybody in the world: St. Peter's place, St. Peter's Basil, the Cappella Sistina (Sistin Chapel), the Vatican Museums the Apostolic Palace, where the Pope lives. Morevoer, there are also other hundreds of masterpieces of sculpture and picture.

[edit] History

The Pope had always had the temporal power upon his territories, which extended in the whole Central Italy. The Popes had always prevented any way of being united with Italy, to avoid losing their power upon the Papal state. In 1861 Italy was unificated under the savoia monarchy, but Rome and Latium remained unconquered. Only on September 20 1870 the Italian troops decided to force the Vatican troops and invaded the previous Papal state, which became part of the Reign of Italy. Rome became Capital of the Reign. The Pope, whose power had been lowered, said he regarded himself prisoner of the Italian state and excomunicated all the people who had conquered his state, preventing the Catholics from participating in public life. Until 1929, the life went on this way, though the succeeding Popes lowered this prevention to participate to Italian politics. Only Benito Mussolini, in 1929, wanted to put an end to this 'cold war', and decided to sign an agreement with the Holy See, called Patti Lateranensi, which created the Vatican State, gave the Pope the power of making his duty without interferences by the state and allowed the new state an annual sum of money as reward for the lost territories.

St. Peter's square, seen from the basilica.

The basilica, in early morning

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Vatican City