Vatican CityStato della Città del Vaticano

In Roman times the Vatican was marshy land outside the city across the Tiber, used for villas, Nero's circus and a cemetery. Christian tradition holds that St Peter was crucified nearby in about 64 CE and buried in that cemetery.

Around 324 Constantine built a basilica directly over the site of the tomb, levelling part of the hill to do so. For more than a thousand years it was the main pilgrimage church of the West. Excavations under the present basilica in the 1940s uncovered a street of Roman tombs and a shrine that the Church identifies as Peter's grave.

The Scavi tour takes small groups through that necropolis; it is the most direct way to see why the Vatican is where it is.

For most of the Middle Ages popes lived at the Lateran, not the Vatican, and ruled a band of central Italy — the Papal States — as temporal princes. After the popes returned from Avignon in 1377 the Vatican became the main residence, and the Apostolic Palace grew around it.

Italian unification took the Papal States piece by piece; in 1870 Italian troops entered Rome and the Pope withdrew behind the Vatican walls, refusing to recognise the new kingdom. Popes remained 'prisoners in the Vatican' for 59 years.

The 1929 Lateran Treaty with Mussolini's government settled the question: Italy recognised Vatican City as a sovereign state of 44 hectares, with extraterritorial properties such as the papal basilicas and Castel Gandolfo, and paid compensation for the lost territories.

By 1500 Constantine's basilica was failing. Pope Julius II laid the foundation of a new church in 1506 to a design by Bramante; over 120 years Raphael, Sangallo, Michelangelo and Carlo Maderno all changed the plan. Michelangelo designed the dome, finished after his death by Giacomo della Porta in 1590.

Gian Lorenzo Bernini spent much of his career inside and outside the basilica: the bronze baldacchino over the altar, the Chair of St Peter in the apse, and the colonnade of St Peter's Square, whose two curved arms 'embrace' arriving pilgrims.

Inside, the Pietà Michelangelo carved at 24 sits behind glass since an attack in 1972. Entry to the basilica is free; the dome climb, partly by lift, gives the best view over Rome.

The Vatican Museums began with classical statues collected by Julius II around 1506, including the Laocoön, found in Rome that year. Later popes added galleries of antiquities, Egyptian and Etruscan collections, maps, tapestries, a picture gallery and modern religious art — about 7 km of rooms.

The highlights are papal apartments painted by Raphael and his workshop, and the Sistine Chapel, built in the 1470s and painted by Botticelli, Perugino and others before Michelangelo covered the ceiling (1508–1512) and the altar wall with the Last Judgement (1536–1541). Cardinals still elect popes in the chapel; it closed to visitors for the May 2025 conclave.

Around seven million people a year pass through, which is why timed tickets, one-way routes and dress codes are strict. The first entry slot and late-afternoon slots are the calmest.

The Pope is sovereign of Vatican City and head of the Holy See, the Church's central government, which is the entity that holds diplomatic relations with about 180 countries. Day-to-day administration of the state is delegated to a Governorate; the Roman Curia runs the Church.

Security falls to the Pontifical Swiss Guard, recruited from Swiss Catholic men since 1506, and the Vatican Gendarmerie. The state has its own post office, stamps, coins, radio, newspaper, pharmacy and supermarket, but relies on Italy for water, power and most services.

Citizenship is functional: cardinals resident in Rome, diplomats and certain employees hold it while in office. About 800 people live inside the walls; several thousand more work there.

Pope Francis died on Easter Monday, 21 April 2025, during a Jubilee year that brought tens of millions of pilgrims to Rome. The conclave of May 2025 elected Robert Francis Prevost, a US-born Augustinian who had spent much of his career in Peru, as Leo XIV — the first pope from the United States.

The Jubilee ended with the closing of the Holy Door in January 2026. The new pontificate's priorities, curial reforms and finances are closely watched; for visitors, the practical effects are the calendar of audiences, Masses and canonisations that close the square.

Plan around them: Wednesday audiences, Sunday Angelus, major feasts and the summer break when the Pope may leave Rome. Check the official calendars before fixing your Vatican morning.