Vatican City Vatican City

Legendary

A city-state surrounded by Rome, it is the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church.

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You can walk across an entire country here in about 20 minutes. Vatican City covers just 44 hectares, about one-eighth the size of Central Park in New York.

It's the smallest country in the world. It's also the only one with fewer than 1,000 people living in it.

Vatican City sits completely inside the city of Rome, surrounded by high walls. It's the home of the pope, the leader of the Catholic Church, and the center of the Church's government.

For more than a thousand years, popes ruled a much bigger territory called the Papal States. It covered a large part of central Italy.

That changed in 1870, when Italy was uniting into one country. Italian troops took Rome, and the Papal States disappeared.

The popes refused to accept it. For almost 60 years, they stayed inside the Vatican in protest and wouldn't step foot into the rest of Rome.

Italy's leader, Benito Mussolini, wanted to end the standoff. On February 11, 1929, his government and the Church signed the Lateran Treaty.

The treaty created a brand-new independent country called Vatican City. In return, the pope agreed to stay out of Italian politics and wars.

Today only a few hundred people are citizens. Most residents are priests, church officials, or members of the Swiss Guard.

The Swiss Guard has protected the pope since 1506. Its soldiers still wear striped uniforms in bright blue, red, and yellow that look straight out of the Renaissance.

The country has its own flag, its own post office, and its own stamps. Its head of state is the pope, currently Pope Leo XIV, elected in May 2025.

Inside the Vatican Museums is the Sistine Chapel. Its ceiling was painted by Michelangelo between 1508 and 1512 and includes the famous scene of God reaching out to touch the hand of Adam.

Walk through the Vatican Museums to reach the Sistine Chapel, and look straight up at Michelangelo's ceiling. Spot the Swiss Guards standing watch at the gates in their striped uniforms. Then stand in St. Peter's Square and look for the line on the ground that marks the border between Vatican City and Italy.

Sources: Wikipedia, Confinity, and History Facts.