VATICAN CITY

in full State of the Vatican City, Italian Stato della Citt del Vaticano, ecclesiastical state, seat of the Roman Catholic church, and an enclave in Rome, situated on the west bank of the Tiber River. The city occupies 109 acres (44 hectares) and is the world's smallest fully independent nation-state. Its medieval and Renaissance walls form its boundaries except on the southeast at St. Peter's Square (Piazza San Pietro). Of the six entrances, only threethe Piazza, the Arco delle Campane (Arch of the Bells) in the facade of St. Peter's Basilica, and the entrance to the Vatican Museums and Galleries in the north wallare open to the public. The most imposing building is St. Peter's Basilica, built during the 4th century and rebuilt during the 16th century. Erected over the tomb of St. Peter the Apostle, it is the second-largest religious building (after Yamoussoukro Basilica) in Christendom. The residence of the pope within the city walls is the Vatican palace. The city has its own telephone system, post office, gardens, astronomical observatory, radio station, banking system, and pharmacy, as well as a contingent of Swiss Guards responsible for the personal safety of the pope since 1506. Almost all suppliesincluding food, water, electricity, and gasmust be imported. There is no income tax and no restriction on the import or export of funds. As the Holy See, it derives its income from the voluntary contributions of more than one billion Roman Catholics worldwide, as well as interest on investments and the sale of stamps, coins, and publications. Banking operations and expenditures have been reported publicly since the early 1980s. During the period from the 4th century to 1870, the Vatican gained control of territory around Rome and served as capital of the Papal States. In 1929 Vatican City's independent sovereignty was recognized by the then Fascist Italian government in the Lateran Treaty. Sovereignty is exercised by the pope upon his election as the head of the Roman Catholic church. He has absolute executive, legislative, and judicial powers within the city. In 1984 a major reshuffle of offices in the Roman Curia resulted in the delegation of the routine administration of Vatican City to a pontifically appointed commission of five cardinals headed by the Secretariat of State. The inhabitants of Vatican City, the majority of whom are priests and nuns, also include several hundred laypersons engaged in secretarial, domestic, trade, and service occupations. Special extraterritorial privileges are extended to more than 10 other buildings in Rome and to Castel Gandolfo, the pope's summer residence in the Alban Hills. In addition, Vatican City maintains embassies in numerous foreign nations. Vatican cultural life has much declined since the Renaissance, when the popes were among Italy's foremost patrons of the arts. The Vatican Museums and Galleries, the frescoes by Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel, the frescoes by Pinturicchio in the Borgia Apartment, and Raphael's Stanze, or rooms, nevertheless attract critics, artists, and flocks of tourists from throughout the world. Years of restoration work on the Sistine Chapel frescoes were completed in 1994, making it possible to view Michelangelo's work in full vibrant colours. The Vatican Apostolic Library contains a priceless collection of some 150,000 manuscripts and 1.6 million printed books, many from the pre-Christian and early Christian times. The Vatican publishes its own influential daily newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, and its press can print books and pamphlets in any of 30 languages, from old Ecclesiastical Georgian to Indian Tamil. Since 1983 the Vatican has produced its own television programming. Its radio broadcasts are heard in 37 languages in many parts of the world. Vatican City was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1984. Pop. (1997 est.) 850. Additional reading Thomas J. Reese, Inside the Vatican: The Politics and Organization of the Catholic Church (1996), covers the Vatican as a city-state and as the headquarters of the Roman Catholic church. Bart McDowell and James L. Stanfield, Inside the Vatican (1991), published by the National Geographic Society, gives a photographic tour of the Vatican. The art of the Vatican is presented in George L. Hersey, High Renaissance Art in St. Peter's and the Vatican (1993), on the art commissioned by the popes in the first half of the 16th century; Carlo Pietrangeli, The Vatican Musems: Five Centuries of History (1993; originally published in Italian, 1985), focusing on the sculpture collection; Lucio Gambi and Antonio Pinelli (eds.), The Gallery of Maps in the Vatican, 3 vol. (1994), in Italian and English, with extensive illustrations; and Carlo Pietrangeli (ed.), Paintings in the Vatican, trans. by Frank Dabell (1996; originally published in Italian, 1996), essays written by the directors of Vatican museum collections. Well-illustrated works on the newly restored Sistine Chapel include Pierluigi De Vecchi and Gianluigi Colalucci, Michelangelo: The Vatican Frescoes (1996), an overview of the restoration; Carlo Pietrangeli et al., The Sistine Chapel: A Glorious Restoration, trans. from Italian (1994); and Loren Partridge, Fabrizio Mancinelli, and Gianluigi Colalucci, MichelangeloThe Last Judgment: A Glorious Restoration (1997).