Vatican City

The smallest sovereign state in the world, created in 1929 to settle an argument that had run for sixty years. Popes ruled central Italy as temporal sovereigns for over a millennium until Italian unification took Rome in 1870, after which successive popes refused to recognise the Italian state and remained inside the Vatican as self-declared prisoners. The Lateran Treaty with Mussolini's government in 1929 ended the standoff by creating a state of forty-four hectares, guaranteeing the pope's independence without restoring any real territory - the point was sovereignty, not land. It is the only country whose head of state is elected by a body of cardinals sequestered under lock and key, a procedure dating from 1274. St Peter's Basilica stands over what is believed to be the apostle's grave, and the Sistine Chapel ceiling is Michelangelo's. The Vatican Library and Secret Archives hold documents going back twelve centuries. The Swiss Guard, recruited from Catholic Swiss cantons, is what remains of the mercenary trade. The state has no taxes, an economy of museums and donations, and a resident population of a few hundred. It holds observer status at the United Nations. The state covers about forty-four hectares, entirely within Rome. Its population is a few hundred, most of them clergy, and citizenship is tied to office rather than birth. Latin remains an official language and Italian is used day to day. The whole territory is a World Heritage site, the only country for which that is true. Vatican City has its own post office, railway station and observatory.

MyHistorian
A causal knowledge graph of history