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Vatican City - or just
"The Vatican" - is one of two independent
countries completely surrounded by Italy.
The other of course is the
Most Serene
Republic of San Marino
in the north east.
But The Vatican is smaller, indeed, it is the
smallest country in the world, both by land area
(.44 sq km) and by population (less than 1000).
Within its enclave, a testament to its long
history, and to the wealth and power
of the
Roman Catholic Church
which governs Vatican City, one finds some of
the most sublime architectural, artistic and
literary works in all of western civilization.
Botticelli,
Michaelangelo,
Da Vinci,
Bernini, and
Raphael are but a few of the artists who
have left their mark here. There are also
extensive, rare and extremely valuable
collections devoted to
Etruscan and Egyptian antiquities, but the
Vatican holdings also include an array of
contemporary art works at least equal to what
one finds in other important galleries around
the world.
Completely encircled by the
City of Rome,
Vatican City sits on the west side of the
Tiber River, within a high defensive wall
built to protect the Holy See. Like the
other principal buildings within Vatican City,
including the
Sistine Chapel, the
Apostolic Palace, and the
Vatican Museums, St. Peters was built on the
Vatican Fields. A little to the
west, the land rises to Mons Vaticanus,
or Vatican Hill, from which the City takes its
name.
One enters the territory through an enormous
oval shaped piazza (St. Peter's Square)
surrounded by a stunning colonnade designed by
Bernini. Across the piazza is the beautiful and
imposing
St. Peter's Basilica,
St. Peter', with a floor area of 23,000 square
meters and a capacity of 60,000 people, is the
largest church in Christendom.
Not surprisingly, within the Vatican enclave,
architectural styles range from
Romanesque and
Gothic to all later styles. However,
the predominant architecture was done at the
height of the
Renaissance or slightly later when the
Church was at its height as a temporal if not a
spiritual power.
St. Peter's Basilica is first and foremost a
Renaissance building, largely designed by
Michaelangelo. The Sistine Chapel and the
Vatican Museums, built in the late 16th Century,
are also Renaissance. The colonnade surrounding
St. Peter's Square, designed by Bernini, is in
the
Baroque style.
Visitors to Vatican City may take pictures in
most places. One place where picture
taking is prohibited is the Pope's personal
chapel, the Sistine Chapel, where one finds a an
immense number of colorful and lively frescoes.
The entire vaulted ceiling is covered by
frescoes done by Michaelangelo for
Pope Julius II. The most famous, and
perhaps the most compelling is "The Creation
of Adam", recently cleaned and restored to
its original vivacity.
It is beyond the scope of this article to detail
the history of the Vatican, or to even catalogue
its many treasures. Travelers have the
choice of preparing themselves for a visit
Vatican City by researching it (we have included
many links to Wikipedia articles here), or
simply by going there and immersing themselves
in the place. Once there, one can wander
around aimlessly, or semi-aimlessly, or join a
guided tour, many of the conductors of which
advertise on the Internet. Needless to
say, we are proponents of at least a little
pre-preparation, and of taking a guided tour.
When you go, expect to spend money, because many
of the venues, including St. Peter's charge a
fee - right now 4 Euros. If you plan on
spending the day (any thing less is perhaps
pointless), you can eat at the cafeteria or
Pizzeria in the Vatican Museum area. The
food isn't especially good by Italian standards,
so if you want something better, take it with
you. |
Outside the Vatican
City, the Holy Roman See
also enjoys sovereignty
over 13 other buildings
in Rome and
Castel Gandolfo, the
Pope's summer residence.
Among the Pope's titles is "Bishop of Rome".
His Cathedral is not St. Peter's but rather the
Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano, or St.
John's Lateran, one of the 13 buildings in Rome
over which the Holy See maintains sovereignty. |
