Vatican City

What the Holy See keeps the state for

The phrase comes from the Holy See's permanent observer mission to the United Nations. Writing in 2018, it described Vatican City as the physical or territorial base of the Holy See, "almost a pedestal upon which is posed a much larger and unique independent and sovereign authority". The Holy See is the central government of the Catholic Church. The mission traces its diplomacy to the fourth century, well before the Papal States existed, and in 2018 it counted diplomatic relations with 182 of the 193 countries in the world, served by 116 nunciatures and permanent missions.

The pedestal is modest beside that. It covers 44 hectares by the figure the Governorate and UNESCO both publish, and it had 882 residents on 31 December 2024. Its one neighbour is Italy, and every metre of its border faces the city of Rome.

Keeping the two apart is the first task for any account of the place. Foreign embassies to the Holy See stand in Rome, since the state has no room for them. When the Holy See signs an agreement for the state, it uses the formula "acting on behalf and in the interest of the State of Vatican City". The permanent observer seat at the United Nations, which the mission dates to 6 April 1964, belongs to the Holy See, and so does membership of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. The state has a legal personality of its own and enters agreements, and the Holy See represents it abroad.

How a treaty gave the papacy ground again

The pedestal is far younger than what stands on it. Popes ruled the Papal States across central Italy from 756 until the city of Rome was captured on 20 September 1870. Italy then confiscated church property across the peninsula, and in 1871 the king took the Quirinal Palace as his royal residence. The popes stayed inside the Vatican walls, declined to recognise the king's right to rule in Rome, and refused to leave the compound until the dispute was resolved. Pius IX, the last ruler of the Papal States, came to be called the "prisoner in the Vatican".

For 59 years the Holy See held no territory, and it kept sending and receiving envoys throughout. The arrangement of 1929 grew out of that: a sovereign with its standing intact, looking for ground.

The Lateran Treaty ended the dispute known as the Roman Question. It was signed on 11 February 1929 and took effect on 7 June 1929. Its purpose, in the words Wikipedia's Holy See article quotes, was to "ensure the absolute and visible independence of the Holy See" and "to guarantee to it indisputable sovereignty in international affairs". The territory was there to make the independence visible. Article 3 recognised the Holy See's full ownership and sovereign jurisdiction over the Vatican "as at present constituted", and so created Vatican City.

Italy's half of the settlement has been rewritten since. The concordat was significantly revised in 1984, ending the status of Catholicism as the sole state religion of Italy, and direct state financial support for the Church gave way to the otto per mille, under which Italian taxpayers direct 0.8% of their income tax to a recognised religious group or to a state-run scheme. The territorial treaty stands. Vatican City: history follows the sequence from the ancient hill to the constitution of 2026.

What fits inside the walls

Walls enclose the state on every side except one. Britannica describes medieval and Renaissance walls forming the boundary everywhere but the south-east, where St Peter's Square opens onto the city. There the Governorate marks the border with a band of travertine laid across the paving between the outer ends of the colonnade. Inside, the ground is a low hill a short way from the right bank of the Tiber, rising to 75 metres at the Vatican Hill.

Much of it is garden, and the garden is older than the state by 650 years. The Governorate dates it to 1279, when Nicholas III brought the papal residence back to the Vatican from the Lateran, raised new walls to defend it and planted an orchard, a lawn and a garden inside them. The remaining ground carries the basilica, the papal palaces and the museums, along with the working plant of a very small state: a railway line and station, a heliport, a post office, a radio station, barracks and government offices.

The treaty assumed this ground could not supply itself. Article 6 bound Italy to assure the city an adequate water supply and to build it a railway station, and Britannica records that almost all supplies, food, water, electricity and gas among them, must be imported. The rail link is a spur of 852 metres from Roma San Pietro station, 300 metres of it inside the state. Article 7 forbids aircraft of any kind to fly over Vatican territory and committed Italy to prohibit new buildings nearby that might overlook the city. UNESCO inscribed the state on the World Heritage List in 1984, so the heritage site and the country share one boundary. The geography article walks that boundary and what Italy supplies across it.

How one elected office governs the state

Sovereignty over the state travels with the papacy. The electors are the cardinals below the age of 80, locked in until one candidate reaches a two-thirds majority. Britannica puts the consequence plainly: sovereignty is exercised by the pope "upon his election as the head of the Roman Catholic Church", and he holds absolute legislative, executive and judicial power over the territory.

The pope delegates most of that power. The Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State, established by Pius XII in 1939, legislates for the state in his name, and the Governorate administers it. A motu proprio of 19 November 2025 changed the rule on who may preside over the Commission, and the Fundamental Law signed on 31 July 2026 folded that amendment into a single text. Every appointment the law describes is still made by the pope. During a vacancy, the Governorate's own account says, the state's powers pass to the College of Cardinals.

The state keeps no armed forces. Its military defence is provided by the Italian Armed Forces, with no formal defence treaty, because Vatican City is neutral. The Swiss Guard, responsible for the pope's personal security, is a military corps of the Holy See. Vatican City: politics sets out the offices, the courts and how the Holy See conducts the state's foreign relations.

Whose money keeps the state running

There are two sets of books. The state lives on what it sells inside its walls: admission to the museums, postage stamps, coins, medals, tourist mementos and publications, by Wikipedia's account. Britannica records no income tax. The state has used the euro since January 1999 under a special agreement with the European Union, and its own euro coins are highly sought by collectors. The Vatican Museums received 6.9 million visitors in 2025, by the count The Art Newspaper published on 31 March 2026.

The larger sums belong to the Holy See. The Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See closed its 2025 financial year with net assets of €2.686 billion. The Institute for the Works of Religion, the Vatican bank, managed €5.9 billion of client funds on 31 December 2025, about 3% more than a year earlier. A commission of cardinals voted the pope a dividend of €24.3 million from its 2025 result, up 76.1% on 2024. Those figures describe the Church's government, and none of them is the budget of the 44 hectares. Vatican City: economy keeps the two accounts apart.

Who lives on the pedestal for a while

Citizenship follows the pedestal's purpose. Vatican City grants it on jus officii, the ground of appointment to work in a certain capacity in the service of the Holy See, and it usually ends when the appointment does. Cardinals living in the state or elsewhere in Rome qualify, as do the Holy See's diplomats and anyone resident in the state because of their work. A spouse and children share it while they live with the citizen in the city. Anyone who loses it and holds no other nationality becomes an Italian citizen, as the Lateran Treaty provides.

The count bears that out. The state had 882 residents on 31 December 2024, whatever their citizenship, and another 372 Vatican citizens lived elsewhere in 2024, most of them the Holy See's diplomats abroad and cardinals living in Rome. Vatican City issues ordinary passports to its citizens. The Holy See, which is not a country, issues only diplomatic and service passports.

What stays put is the institutions. Julius II founded the Pontifical Swiss Guard on 22 January 1506 as the pope's personal bodyguard, and it still fills that role. The Holy See most often uses Latin for the authoritative version of its documents, and the state uses only Italian in its legislation. Vatican City: culture follows the library, the museums and the people who pass through them.

How visitors cross into the state

Most visitors enter on foot across the square. Article 3 of the treaty keeps St Peter's Square normally open to the public under the supervision of the Italian police, whose powers stop at the foot of the steps leading to the basilica. When the Holy See closes the square for a ceremony, the Italian authorities withdraw beyond the outer line of Bernini's colonnade.

Beyond the square each door sets its own terms. Papal audiences and major ceremonies in the basilica and the square need tickets, free of charge, obtained beforehand, and the museums charge admission. The heaviest crowds follow the Church's calendar. During the Holy Year of 2025, almost 33.5 million pilgrims came to Rome from 185 countries, according to figures the Holy See's Jubilee organiser gave on 5 January 2026. That count covers the whole city, and the pressure falls on Rome as much as on the state.

The state has no airport. Its one aviation facility is the Vatican City Heliport, and travellers arrive through Rome. Vatican City: travel covers the entrances, the timing and the Roman approaches.