Vatican City is the smallest country in the world and also home to the Pope 🏰. This city is the world’s epicenter, which was created upon the tomb of Saint Peter the Apostle ⛪️.
With an area of just 44 hectares, this small city is packed with millennia of architecture and art, from the 4000-year-old Egyptian obelisk in Saint Peter’s Square to the mastery of Michelangelo on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
Vatican City is full of many other tourist attractions and has its own customs, codes, and traditions. So, in this article, let us check out some interesting Vatican City Facts 📜.
The Hidden Wonders The Vatican City Facts That Will Leave You Speechless
The Vatican has Michelangelo’s only autographed work
Everywhere in the Vatican, you will see Michelangelo’s legacy. His masterpieces include the Moses statue in Rome and the David statue in Florence 😮.
His excellent works decorated the walls and ceiling of the Sistine Chapel 🖼️. However, it never saw the completion of Saint Peter’s Dome. However, in the Vatican, you will see Michelangelo’s only autographed work called the marble statue of Pieta 🗿.
Inside Saint Peter’s Basilica, you will find the sculpture of the Virgin Mary cradling Jesus’s dead body after the crucifixion, and you will see Michelangelo’s name carved onto Mary’s sash.
The Vatican’s name has a pagan origin.
The area on the left bank of the Tiber River was called Ager Vaticanus during the Roman Republic. Though its name derived from the Latin word vaticinal, meaning to foretell or prophecy, suggesting that this was where soothsayers or prophets would issue valuable forecasts ☁️.
According to the Roman writer Varro, the area got its name from the god of childbirth 👶, Vaticanus, who opened the mouths of newborn babies and whose voice could be heard on this hill.
Thus, the cry of a newborn, “wah-wah,” sounded similar to the first syllable of this god’s name (“va”) 🗣️.
Saint Peter’s Square is located above an ancient chariot racing track.
You would be amazed to know that beneath Saint Peter’s Basilica and Square, there is a vast chariot-racing track created during the reigns of Caligula and Nero. Saint Peter himself was executed between the two turning points on the central barrier of the way.
Another interesting fact about Vatican City is that Peter was crucified upside-down; thus, it would not imitate Christ ✝️.
The Vatican needs better wine and water.
According to a first-century poet called Martial, the region around Vatican City produced some of the world’s worst wines 🍷.
Also, according to Rome’s famous historian, Tacitus, the Vatican was a disease-ridden, fetid place even after Caligula and Nero had created their circuses there. Rome was in the grip of a civil war during the Year of the Four Emperors, fought between four dynastic families.
When Emperor Vitellius arrived in Rome from Germany, he camped his soldiers on the northern bank of the Tiber River, now known as the Vatican 🌊.
The Vatican’s Obelisk was transported to Rome by Emperor Caligula.
In 37 AD, Emperor Caligula had an obelisk shipped from Egypt’s Heliopolis to adorn his chariot racing track’s central barrier 🗿.
This is the obelisk that you can see even today in the Vatican. Also, Caligula’s mammoth undertaking is inscribed in Latin on this 2000-year-old obelisk 🌍.
Pirates once attacked the Vatican.
The Vatican was once attacked by Saracen pirates from Saudi Arabia’s Hejaz region 🏴☠️. Before this, raiding this Roman city had been mainly a European occupation. First, it was the Gauls, then the Goths, and next, the Vandals, who plundered the town.
Then, in 846, the Arab raiders sailed over to Italy, disembarked their ships, plundered the city of Ostia, and eventually advanced to Rome’s Aurelian Walls. They even raided Saint Paul’s and Saint Peter’s Basilica outside the walls, stole a golden cross, and smashed Saint Peter’s tomb 💣.
Constantine created the first Saint Peter’s Basilica.
The most recognizable basilica in the Vatican is Saint Peter’s Basilica 🏛️. However, the basilica you can see today was built from 1506-1626. Before this, the place was occupied by a basilica of the fourth century, now famous as Old Saint Peter’s Basilica.
This basilica stood above the resting place of Saint Peter the Apostle. Its construction finished in 324, and the people of future centuries enjoyed a bustling neighborhood surrounding this pilgrimage place.
The first Popes of Rome didn’t live in the Vatican.
A fascinating fact about Vatican City is that the Popes did not live there between the 4th and 14th centuries but in the Lateran Palace beside the Basilica of Saint John in Lateran.
After marrying the sister of Maxentius, Constantine the Great came into possession of this territory, constructed the basilica beside it, and gifted this place to the Popes 🎁.
The Popes have only lived here since the 14th century.
Following their 67-year sabbatical in France, the Popes moved back to Rome. First, they established their headquarters in Santa Maria in Trastevere and Santa Maria Maggiore before finally fixing their residence in Saint Peter’s.
However, much restoration work was required before they could reside among the luxury they are accustomed to today. Many years of neglect had turned the Lateran Palace into a shabby dwelling.
The Vatican City is a hill surrounded by a wall 🏰.
It is a country that is surrounded by walls. The wall makes this 110-acre country the world’s only one with a wall around a significant part of its territory.
However, these walls do not function as a hard border because they are centuries old, and anyone can walk past them into and out of Vatican City 🌍.
The Vatican is the country within the city.
Vatican City is Earth’s only nation with neither a prison nor a hospital. It is so tiny that it does not host any embassies on its soil, despite the vast international influence of the Catholic Church 🏛️.
Also, it is the smallest country by both population and size. Still, it boasts many of the trappings you would expect from a modern nation, such as its own post office, passports, national anthem, telephone system, Internet domain, license plates, flag, and even a national football team ⚽️.
Vatican City has the world’s most extensive library.
In Vatican City, you will find the world’s most extensive library of collected books 📚, with more than 1.1 million texts, and almost 6,000 new acquisitions are added annually. It is one of the planet’s most extensive collections of Greek, Latin, and Hebrew texts 📖.
The library of Vatican City contains texts 📜 on everything from religion and philosophy to classics, with some of the oldest texts dating back to the first century.
Vatican City is also famous as the Holy See.
The United Nations even represents the Catholic Church as the “Holy See” instead of “Vatican City.” These two are different, albeit highly intertwined entities.
Vatican City is the sovereign state, while the Holy See is the legal body controlling many aspects of the Catholic Church worldwide ✝️. Moreover, while popes come and go, the Holy See holds the concept of being “eternal.”
It is the only nation to belong to a single religion.
Vatican City is entirely Catholic; hence, it is the only nation on the planet that belongs to a single religion. Because of the Catholic Church’s aversion to divorce, it is one of only two nations in the world 🌍 not to have laws allowing for or even regarding divorce ❌💔.
Vatican’s population is the smallest on the planet.
Vatican City has one of the most interesting and unique citizenship situations and populations of any nation on Earth 👥.
Another interesting fact about this nation is that it has no native population, as all citizens are “immigrants” because the Pope appoints them to live and work in the city. Moreover, if those workers stop serving the city, they will lose citizenship.
Thus, Vatican City has the smallest population of any country on the planet, generally near a thousand people 👥, with only several dozen women.
The Vatican is the world’s most militarized nation.
10% of the population of Vatican City consists of soldiers. Among the approximate number of 900 citizens, about 100 are soldiers of the Swiss Guard, whose main job is to protect the Pope. However, despite the strong military presence, the city has one of the world’s highest crime rates 🚔.
Vatican City has less than 100 citizens, but around seven million tourists visit each year. This high number of visitors contributes to the high crime rate per capita.
The Vatican has its radio station, TV, and newspaper.
Since 1983, Vatican City has been producing its television programming called Vatican TV 📻. You can even live-stream Vatican TV.
Additionally, the Holy See broadcasts daily Catholic news to its followers through its radio station, Radio Vaticana, which broadcasts in about 40 languages worldwide.
Moreover, the Vatican has a multilingual newspaper, L’osservatore Romano, which offers readers information on cultural and religious issues.
The residents of Vatican City are the heaviest wine consumers in the world.
Another interesting fact about Vatican City is that the residents consume more wine per capita than any other country in the world. According to a survey, they consume almost 105 bottles or 74 liters of wine annually 🍇. This amount is more than double what the average French citizen consumes 🍾.
The Vatican owns a telescope.
Since 1891, the Holy See has been operating its observatory 🔭 near the Pope’s summer residence of Castel Gandolfo. However, due to light pollution in the capital of Italy, the Holy See bought another research center in Tucson, Arizona, in 1981 🌌.
So, despite being the smallest country in the world, Vatican City has a rich history, fantastic architecture, exciting culture, famous practices, the most extensive library 📚, and many more fascinating aspects.
At the end of this article, we learned 19 interesting facts that provide us with a clear picture of this unique country, Vatican City. For additional points, you can visit our website.
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