Title: Vatican City - Wikipedia
Headings: Vatican City
Vatican City
Contents
Name
History
Early history
Papal States
Italian unification
Lateran treaties
World War II
Post-war history
Geography
Climate
Gardens
Governance
Political system
Head of state and government
Administration
Defense and security
Foreign relations
Non-party, non-signatory policy
Economy
Demographics
Languages
Citizenship
Statistical oddities
Culture
Sport
Infrastructure
Transport
Communications
Recycling
Crime
See also
References
Footnotes
Citation notes
Bibliography
External links
Official websites
Other websites

Content: Latin: Status Civitatis Vaticanae ), is the Holy See 's independent city state, an enclave within Rome, Italy. The Vatican City State, also known as The Vatican, became independent from Italy with the Lateran Treaty (1929), and 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, and spiritual independence. With an area of 49 hectares (121 acres) and a population of about 825, it is the smallest state in the world by both area and population. As governed by the Holy See, the Vatican City State is an ecclesiastical or sacerdotal - monarchical state (a type of theocracy) ruled by the pope who is the bishop of Rome and head of the Catholic Church. The highest state functionaries are all Catholic clergy of various national origins. After the Avignon Papacy (1309–1437), the popes have mainly resided at the Apostolic Palace within what is now Vatican City, although at times residing instead in the Quirinal Palace in Rome or elsewhere. The Holy See dates back to Early Christianity and is the principal episcopal see of the Catholic Church, which has approximately 1.329 billion baptised Catholic Christians in the world as of 2018
[update]
in the Latin Church and 23 Eastern Catholic Churches. The independent state of Vatican City, on the other hand, came into existence on 11 February 1929 by the Lateran Treaty between the Holy See and Italy, which spoke of it as a new creation, not as a vestige of the much larger Papal States (756–1870), which had previously encompassed much of central Italy. Within the Vatican City are religious and cultural sites such as St. Peter's Basilica, the Sistine Chapel, and the Vatican Museums.