History of the Vatican 1

The Vatican, a European microstate, is located in the western, central part of Rome on Vatican Hill, several hundred metres west of the Tiber River. It is the smallest sovereign state in the world, totalling only 0.44 square kilometres or 110 acres of land. All 3.2 kilometres of the Vatican’s limits border Italy and closely follow the wall surrounding the city, which was constructed to protect the pope from outside attack. The Vatican is also the first and only country that is carbon neutral, meaning its net carbon emissions total zero. It achieved this by planting the Vatican Climate Forest in Hungary.

In the early first century, Julia Vispannia Agrippina, granddaughter of the first Roman emperor Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus, had an elaborate garden built in an uninhabited area separated from Rome by the Tiber. After the death of Agrippina, her son, Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (more commonly known as Caligula) began the construction of a circus on the site of her gardens. Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (more commonly known as Nero) completed the circus after the death of Caligula. The Circus of Nero became the site of martyrdom for many Christians and it is believed that it was the site where Saint Peter was crucified upside down.

Caesar Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus Augustus (more commonly known as Constantine) became the first Christian emperor of Rome in 306. Constantine had the Circus of Nero demolished and on its site he erected the Old Saint Peter’s Basilica. The population of the area grew as people connected with the activities of the Basilica relocated and built dwelling houses near the church. A palace was erected near the basilica sometime between 498 and 514, during the pontificate of Pope Symmachus.

The papacy came to govern a large portion of the Italian peninsula for over one thousand years; however the Vatican was not home to the popes for the majority of this time. They resided in Avignon, France in the...