Vatican City

Vatican City is an independent city-state inside Rome, Italy, on the Vatican Hill west of the Tiber, and the seat of the Pope. St. Peter's Basilica, built over the traditional tomb of the apostle Peter, rises at its center under the dome designed by Michelangelo.

The Vatican Hill lay outside ancient Rome, and Emperor Constantine built the first basilica of St. Peter there in the 4th century. The popes lived mainly at the Lateran for much of the Middle Ages and settled on the Vatican after their return from Avignon. The old basilica was replaced in the 16th and 17th centuries by the present church, the work of Bramante, Michelangelo, Carlo Maderno and others. When the Papal States became part of Italy, the popes stayed within the Vatican walls, and the Lateran Treaty signed with Italy in 1929 created the independent state.

The Vatican issues its own postage stamps and euro coins, which collectors buy around the world, and ticket sales of the Vatican Museums bring in much of its income. Vatican Radio, set up by Guglielmo Marconi in the 1930s, broadcasts in dozens of languages.

Gian Lorenzo Bernini framed St. Peter's Square with two curved colonnades in the 17th century, and an Egyptian obelisk stands at its center. Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the early 16th century and later The Last Judgment on its altar wall, and the chapel is where the cardinals meet to elect a new pope. The Vatican Museums, begun by Pope Julius II with ancient statues such as the Laocoön, include the rooms painted by Raphael. The Vatican Apostolic Library keeps manuscripts and early printed books gathered since the 15th century.