Geography of Vatican City

The territory of Vatican City was laid down in negotiations between the Holy See and the Government of the Kingdom of Italy, which resulted in the signing of the Lateran Treaty ( 1929). The Vatican City was 0.44 km ², the smallest country in the world.

Expansion of the territory

The state territory includes the walled area with a wall of the Vatican hill. It is surrounded by Roman city. The 0.44 km ² large area of the Vatican City is the papal palace, St. Peter's Basilica with St. Peter's Square, the Vatican Museums, the Vatican Gardens, the Governatoratspalast, the barracks of the Swiss Guard and the Vatican Gendarmerie, and directorates of the Osservatore Romano and Vatican Radio, a small part of the Paul VI Hall. and other administrative buildings.

According to the Lateran Treaty of St. Peter's and St. Peter's Square to the public remained accessible. The fuse of the latter (although part Vatican territory) normally take Italian police forces. However, their authority ends at the foot of the stairs leading to the basilica direction. For the duration of special ceremonies of St. Peter's Square for the general public will be blocked. In such cases, the Italian police must withdraw from the course on Italian territory.

The border between the Vatican City and Italy is at the Campo Santo Teutonico and the Paul VI Hall. (western edge of the area outlined in blue on the map ) is not precisely mapped, and is listed differently ( in official maps itself) depending on the source. However, since the Vatican, although limited in this area on Italian territory, but this is located in the extraterritorial possession of the Holy See, this unclear border demarcation is of no practical relevance. The boundary of the core region to Italy covers 3.2 kilometers.

• Dark gray: territory of Vatican City
• Light gray ( St. Peter's Square ): Territory of Vatican City, security agendas delegated to Italian security forces.
• Red: The narrow strip (about 3 m wide and 60 m long) along the outside of the right (ie northern ) colonnade of Bernini is after the Lateran Treaty Italian territory and is subject to Italian jurisdiction. This fact was denied by a mixed vatikanisch - Italian Commission, which met until 1932 and which clarified the technical details of the contracts. Since the Commission was not charged from the Italian side with senior lawyers and beyond just held an advisory role, the legal relevance of this point of Italy is not recognized.
• Outlined in blue: The blue outlined area is indeed Italian territory, however, is in the possession of the Holy See and enjoys extraterritorial status. It is not subject to Italian jurisdiction. On it is the seat of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the greater part of the Paul VI Hall. and the Campo Santo Teutonico and the German College.
• Other: The light gray area south of the Vatican train station ( stazione ) was inked loud note at the bottom left on the map as " surface on Italian territory to supply the station " ( this area was not light gray background in a map of the Gazzetta Ufficiale of 1929).

Extra-territorial possessions of the Holy See

In addition to the creation of the State of Vatican City, the Lateran Treaty transferred the Holy See but also the possession of several areas and buildings around Rome.

Many of these areas enjoy extraterritorial status, but are not part of the Vatican territory still in the possession of the Vatican City ( as a state subject of international law ). Rather, they remain part of Italian territory and thus have a similar status as other foreign diplomatic missions within Italy ( which are also outside the jurisdiction of the host country ). But since both are the Vatican City as well as these extraterritorial areas under the control and possession of the Holy See ( as a non- state entity in international law ), they are integrated into the Vatican postal and telecommunications as well as in the Vatican legal system. Public order in the extraterritorial areas is ensured by the Vatican Gendarmerie.

The following areas and buildings have extraterritorial status (the list is not exhaustive ):

• The basilicas of St. John Lateran, Santa Maria Maggiore and San Paolo fuori le Mura
• The palace of the CDF, the greater part of the Paul VI Hall. and the Campo Santo Teutonico and the German College ( Collegio Teutonico S. Maria in Campo Santo ) in the vicinity of St. Peter's Basilica
• Palazzo di Propaganda Fide in the Piazza di Spagna
• The area, which occupies the northwestern part of the Janiculum hill
• The Palazzo di San Callisto in Trastevere
• The Palazzo della Cancelleria on Corso Vittorio Emanuele II
• Papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo
• The broadcasting center of Radio Vaticano in Santa Maria di Galeria (since 1951)

Furthermore, any church within Italy, where the Pope performs religious ceremonies and to which the public has no access, extraterritorially during this period.

Since the urban planning requirements of the city of Rome or of Castel Gandolfo and the needs of the Holy See changed since the entry into force of the Lateran Pacts, there were several Gebietsabtäuschen or to minor corrections in the border over the extraterritorial areas since 1929. For example, the Palazzo della Dataria was transferred to the Italian State at the Quirinale Palace in 1979, which ceded the Holy See in the Palazzo Pio exchange on the Via della Conciliazione.

Summer residence in Castel Gandolfo

The extraterritorial area of the papal summer residence extends over a length of about 2 km along the crater rim of the Alban lake of Castel Gandolfo to the local area of the neighboring village of Albano Laziale. With an area of ​​over 55 hectares, it is larger than the territory of Vatican City itself, the " Directorate of the Pontifical Villas " ( Direzione delle Ville Pontificie ), a division of the Governorate of Vatican City, is responsible solely for the administration of the area in Castel Gandolfo.

The extraterritorial area consists of three major parts:

• The Apostolic Palace in Piazza della Libertà, with gardens known as the Giardino del Moro ( ≈ 2 ha)
• The garden of the Villa Cybo, without, however, separated by the main road villa itself ( ≈ 3 ha)
• The Villa Barberini with the associated lands and gardens, the site of the summer residence of the Pontifical Urban College, the Poor Clares convent in Albano Laziale, as well as agricultural land ( ≈ 50 ha)

The Apostolic Palace is connected by a loggia -like road crossing with the garden of the Villa Cybo, and these in turn on a viaduct with the largest part of the complex, the lands around the Villa Barberini.

Two smaller, also extra-territorial and separate from the main area, areas in the municipality of Albano Laziale the olive grove Oliveto ex - Bacelli ( ≈ 3 hectares) and, in Piazza della Libertà in Castel Gandolfo, the San Tommaso di Villanova Church and connected to it rectory ( ≈ 0.1 ha, with the exception of located on the ground floor premises of the post office and the pharmacy).

Since the signing of the Lateran Treaty in 1929, the boundaries of the complex was changed several times. Thus acquired Pius XI. in the 1930s at Albano Laziale country to set up a small farm that supplies the papal court and the Vatican supermarket goods ever since. In 1947 these lands newly acquired received (which include the olive grove " ex - Bacelli " part ) together with the adjacent convent of Poor Clares the status of extraterritoriality. In return, the Holy See renounced in terms of the community cemetery of Albano Laziale (according to annex the Lateran treaties extraterritorially ) on this privilege.

Originally even more about Castel Gandolfo scattered individual properties had the privilege of extraterritoriality - for example the Villa Cybo (from their gardens by a main road separated), the Casa Pio X or the Casa Benedetto XV. Also the Cortilone or Salita Sant'Antonio were over which the viaduct leading from the gardens of Villa Cybo to the lands of the Villa Barberini, extraterritorial, but open to the public traffic areas. With the desire of the community Albano Laziale to expand the municipal cemetery was found in 1981, the opportunity to simplify the delineation of a summer residence. The agreement saw that the Holy See to a 2000 m² large, bordering on the cemetery grounds of the municipality is about free, and that he does not under his control at the individual properties and publicly available traffic areas on the extraterritorial status. In return, the Italian government agreed to grant the site of the summer residence of the Pontifical Urban College (including gardens ) the privilege of Exterritorialiät.

Lateran Treaty: Negotiations over the extent of the territory

In the negotiations that ultimately resulted in the conclusion of the Lateran Treaty, the question of the extent of the future state was discussed by both sides. In the early stages of discussion (1926 ) the integration of the Villa Doria Pamphili was (approximately 2 km south of the Vatican City ) in the State territory in the room (including a connection to the Vatican City on the villa Abamelek ). However, many cardinals of the Curia met this proposal with skepticism, as you feared a surfeit with too great a stretch of the future state of administrative problems.