Portal:Vatican City

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Vatican City, officially the Vatican City State (Italian: Stato della Città del Vaticano; Latin: Status Civitatis Vaticanae), is a landlocked sovereign state and city-state; it is enclaved within Rome, the capital city of Italy and seat of the Catholic Church. It became independent from the Kingdom of Italy in 1929 with the Lateran Treaty. It is governed by the Holy See, itself a sovereign entity under international law, which maintains its temporal power, governance, diplomacy, and spiritual independence. Vatican is also used as a metonym for the pope, the central authority of the Roman Catholic Church, and the Holy See and the Roman Curia.

With an area of 49 hectares (121 acres) and a population of about 882 in 2024, it is the smallest sovereign state in the world both by area and by population. It is among the least populated capitals in the world. As governed by the Holy See, Vatican City State is an ecclesiastical or sacerdotal-monarchical state 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 origins. After the Avignon Papacy (1309– 1377) 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. (Full article...)

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.va is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the State of the Vatican City. It is administered by the Internet Office of the Holy See.

There are 23 easily found names starting with "www" in the va zone, listed below. There are many more subdomains for email only^[1]

Second-level domains are not available to the public.

Name and email servers within the .va namespace include john.vatican.va (DNS and email), michael.vatican.va (DNS), paul.vatican.va (email), lists.vatican.va (email), and vatiradio.va (email).

Strangely enough, some offsite secondary DNS servers used by the Vatican are named after Egyptian gods, like:

seth.namex.it.
osiris.namex.it.

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Credit: Hannes Flo

Via della Conciliazione (Road of the Conciliation^[2]) is a street in the Rione of Borgo within Rome, Italy.

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The following are images from various Vatican City-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1View of Vatican City in the evening. (from Vatican City)
Image 2Vatican Gardens (from Gardens of Vatican City)
Image 3The Vatican obelisk in St. Peter's Square was brought to Rome from Egypt by Caligula. (from Vatican City)
Image 4The Seal of Vatican City. Note the use of the Italian language. (from Vatican City)
Image 5The territory of Vatican City State according to the Lateran Treaty (from Vatican City)
Image 6St. Peter's Basilica is one of the most renowned works of Renaissance architecture. (from Vatican City)
Image 7The crowds of tourists in St. Peter's Square are a target for pickpockets. (from Crime in Vatican City)
Image 8The Vatican's post office was established in February 1929. (from Vatican City)
Image 9Map of Vatican City (from Geography of Vatican City)
Image 10A souvenir shop on the roof of St. Peter's Basilica (from Economy of Vatican City)
Image 11Empress Saint Helena of Constantinople carrying the One True Cross laying the grounds for the gardens using the sacred soil from Mount Calvary. (from Gardens of Vatican City)
Image 12The crowds of tourists in St. Peter's Square are a target for pickpockets. (from Vatican City)
Image 13Pope Leo XIV, 2025 (from Vatican City)
Image 14Enlargeable, detailed map of Vatican City (from Geography of Vatican City)
Image 15A view of St. Peter's Square from the top of Michelangelo's dome (from Vatican City)
Image 16The shortest national railway system in the world (from Vatican City)
Image 17A pay phone in the Vatican City (from Vatican City)
Image 18Pope Pius XI decree and conferment of Saint Therese of France to be Patroness of the gardens, flanked by Cardinal Louis Billot. The Leonine walls, 17 May 1927. (from Gardens of Vatican City)
Image 19The Ingresso di Sant'Anna, an entrance to Vatican City from Italy (from Vatican City)
Image 20Cesare Orsenigo (left, with Hitler and Ribbentrop), nuncio to Germany, also served as de facto nuncio to Poland. (from Vatican City during World War II)
Image 21A guard of the Vatican at his sentry box (from Vatican City)
Image 22Palace of the Governorate of Vatican City State (from Gardens of Vatican City)
Image 23The Vatican City came into existence in 1929, a decade before the start of World War II (from Vatican City during World War II)
Image 24Members of the Canadian Royal 22nd Regiment in audience with Pope Pius XII, following the 1944 Liberation of Rome. (from Vatican City during World War II)
Image 25Part of the Vatican Gardens (from Gardens of Vatican City)
Image 26Armenian cross monument (Khatchkar) inside the Vatican Gardens (from Gardens of Vatican City)
Image 27The Palace of the Governorate of Vatican City State (from Vatican City)
Image 28The Italian peninsula in 1796. The Papal States in central Italy are coloured purple. (from Vatican City)
Image 29A view of the Gardens of Vatican City (from Geography of Vatican City)
Image 30Bernardino Nogara, the chief Vatican financier during the war (from Vatican City during World War II)
Image 31The Apostolic Palace (Palazzo Apostolico), the official residence of the Pope. Here, Benedict XVI is at the window marked by a maroon banner hanging from the windowsill at centre. (from Vatican City)
Image 32An early interpretation of the relative locations of the circus, and the medieval and current Basilicas of St. Peter (from Vatican City)
Image 33A map of the United Nations member states (from Vatican City)
Image 34A Vatican gendarmerie car (from Vatican City)
Image 35A monument to Fr. Maximilian Kolbe, among the estimated 3,000 members (18%) of the Polish clergy who were killed by the Nazis; of these, 1,992 died in concentration camps. (from Vatican City during World War II)
Image 36President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama meet with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican on July 10, 2009. (from Women in Vatican City)
Image 37One possible modern interpretation (from Vatican City)
Image 38The Fountain of the Eagle "Fontana dell'Aquilone" in the Vatican Gardens (from Gardens of Vatican City)
Image 39Musicians of the British Army's 38th (Irish) Brigade playing in front of St. Peter's Basilica in June 1944 (from Vatican City)
Image 40An ATM in Vatican City with Latin instructions (from Economy of Vatican City)
Image 41Italian Garden (from Gardens of Vatican City)
Image 42A map of Vatican City, highlighting notable buildings and the Vatican gardens (from Vatican City)
Image 43Polish ambassador to the Vatican, Kazimierz Papée, was critical of Pius XII's pre-war mediation efforts. (from Vatican City during World War II)
Image 44Vatican Museums' "New Wing", built by Raffaele Stern (1774–1820) (from Vatican City)

Did you know?

... that some Catholics considered Tom Lehrer's "The Vatican Rag" (audio featured) to be blasphemous?
... that Antiqua et nova is a Vatican document that expresses serious ethical concerns surrounding the usage of artificial intelligence?
... that Karl Malte von Heinz designed the Vatican, Pakistani, Yugoslav and Thai diplomatic missions in India?
... that the Second Vatican Council tried to undo the latinization of Eastern Catholic liturgy?
... that the Vatican's website was first made available in Latin under Pope Benedict XVI?
... that the Vatican selected Mary Milligan in 1987 to be one of only three U.S. experts to assist the International Synod of Bishops on the Laity in Rome?

...that a portion of the Palatine Library returned to Heidelberg in 1816, almost two centuries after it was looted from city by the Catholic League?"

...that capital punishment in the Vatican City was legal (but not carried out) between 1929 and 1969?

... that Eugenio Pacelli's (future Pope Pius XII) 1936 visit was planned, in part, to investigate and silence Catholic priest and New Deal opponent Charles Coughlin?

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Vatican Palace: the gardens from the museum.

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External Resources

Homepage of The Vatican

Sources

^ "VA Zone File". Robert Baskerville's ccTLD analysis data. 2007-12-28. Archived from the original on 19 January 2008. Retrieved 2007-12-28.
^ The name finally settled upon for the project was chosen by journalist Franco Franchi after World War II; Delli, Sergio (1975). Le strade di Roma. Rome: Newton & Compton. p. sub vocem.

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[1] "VA Zone File". Robert Baskerville's ccTLD analysis data. 2007-12-28. Archived from the original on 19 January 2008. Retrieved 2007-12-28.

[2] The name finally settled upon for the project was chosen by journalist Franco Franchi after World War II; Delli, Sergio (1975). Le strade di Roma. Rome: Newton & Compton. p. sub vocem.

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