Hiding in Plain Sight

Question: Of the world’s 44 landlocked nations, only three are located within another country—Lesotho, San Marino, and who else?

Answer: Vatican City

Lesotho, San Marino, and Vatican City aren’t just landlocked, they are the only three countries in the world located entirely within the territory of another state. Known as “enclave” countries, all three are rather small. Actually, calling two of them small is being far too generous. The big boy of the trio is Lesotho—or as it’s officially named, the Kingdom of Lesotho. Once known as Basutoland, Lesotho is a region of just under 12,000 square miles encircled by South Africa. Renowned for its breathtaking mountain landscapes, it’s nicknamed the “Kingdom in the Sky.”

Far smaller than Lesotho is the Republic of San Marino. Located in northern-central Italy, San Marino covers just 24 square miles and has a permanent population of only about 33,000 residents. In spite of its tiny size, however, San Marino has a couple of big things going for it: It’s the world’s oldest surviving constitutional republic, and its namesake capital, perched atop Mount Titano, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Which brings us to Vatican City.

Any way you slice it, Vatican City—whose official name is Vatican City State—is very, very small. How small? This walled nation entirely surrounded by the city of Rome is just 0.17 square miles (that’s about 120 times smaller than Manhattan Island, or about one-eighth the size of Central Park). With some 800 residents, it’s the world’s smallest country by both land area and population—by a long shot. And yes, it actually is a country—albeit one whose border walls you could walk the entire way around in about 40 minutes. But what it lacks in acreage, Vatican City more than makes up for in its outsized influence in world affairs—a true testament to the fact that size isn’t everything. And while San Marino’s capital is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, all of Vatican City is one—the first and only country in the world to earn this designation.

Conclave in the enclave

Still, it boggles the mind that such immense power and influence can emanate from such a small space. As the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church, Vatican City directly influences the lives of more than 1.2 billion Catholics around the globe. As recent events brought to light, Vatican City is also the official residence of the Pope, who serves as both the bishop of Rome and leader of the Catholic Church (technically, the pope is the ruler of both Vatican City State and the Holy See, which is the supreme body of government of the Catholic Church). To put an even finer point on the global nature of the church, many of us witnessed the recent conclave, which resulted in the election of a “Chicago-style” pope, the first American-born leader in the church’s 2,000-year history.

If you’ve ever wondered how the Vatican became the seat of the Catholic Church in the first place, a couple of early Roman Emperors had a lot to do with it.

In the beginning, Vatican City was a real circus—literally

The roots of the Vatican go back to the early days of the Roman Empire, when the site was a marshy, malarial hill and plain overlooking the western bank of the Tiber known as the Ager Vaticanus. Mostly uninhabited at the time, the backwater was reclaimed and would become sprinkled with villas—including the gardens of Agrippina, the mother of Caligula.

After Agrippina’s death, ownership of the gardens passed on to Caligula, who decided to build a circus for chariot races. He even had a 2,000-year-old obelisk shipped from Egypt to adorn the central barrier of his racetrack—the very same obelisk that still stands in St. Peter’s Square today (except now it’s 4,000 years old, of course). Exit Caligula and enter Nero, who continues construction of Caligula’s circus, which now becomes known as the “Circus of Nero.”

Now is when things get really interesting. In AD 64, a devastating fire broke out in Rome, which levels much of the city. In spite of the legend, Nero didn’t merrily fiddle during the week-long conflagration (violins weren’t even invented until the 16th century). But he did need some suitable scapegoats, and the new upstart religious community known as “Christians” fit the bill perfectly. Nero then gathers all the known and suspected Christians together and has them cruelly executed for public amusement at his circus. He then has the corpses—which included a then elderly Saint Peter—buried in a nearby necropolis at the base of Vatican Hill. Since Saint Peter had basically been Jesus’s wing man, the necropolis site soon becomes a place of devotion for the rapidly growing Christian faithful.

Then, sometime in the second century AD, Nero’s circus was abandoned. And that might have been the last we heard about Vatican City until a seismic event changed the course of Christianity and Western history for all time—the conversion of Roman Emperor Constantine to Christianity following his victory at the Milvian Bridge in 312 AD. One of the first acts of Rome’s first Christian emperor (after legalizing Christianity itself, of course) was to have a church built on the site of Nero’s abandoned circus—right on the spot where Saint Peter was buried.

Construction on what is now known as “Old Saint Peter’s Basilica” was completed in 324 AD, and over the centuries a bustling neighborhood and marketplace called the Borgo would spring up around what was developing into the most important pilgrimage site in the Christian world.

Build a wall—and make the pirates pay for it

Over the next several centuries, the city of Rome would be plundered a few times by European bands like the Gauls, the Goths, and the Vandals. But in 846 AD, an attack came from … pirates. Not ones of the Caribbean either, they were Saracen pirates from the Hejaz region of Saudi Arabia. After plundering the port city of Ostia, details are sketchy on the raid—but we do know that Saint Peter’s tomb was smashed, and the basilica was plundered. This prompted then Pope Leo IV to order the construction of a wall to protect the holy basilica against future attacks (or, as the sports pages of the day might have put it: After Loss to Pirates, Saints to Focus on Defense). Completed in A.D. 852, the 39-foot-high wall enclosed an area what became known as Leonine City, which was basically a rough outline of the walls surrounding the current Vatican City.

Things were put on hold in Vatican City with the shift of the papal court to Avignon, France, in 1309. But when popes returned to Rome the following century, work began in earnest to restore the walled city’s luster. Construction of the Apostolic Palace began in 1450 with Nicholas V’s collection of books serving as the foundation of the Vatican Library; in the 1470s, Sixtus IV began work on the Sistine Chapel; and when Julius II became pope at the dawn of the 16th century, he chose to tear down the 1,200-year-old St. Peter’s Basilica and have a new, grander one built in its place.

The next roadblock in the history of Vatican City came in the late 1800s. For centuries, the popes had traditionally held power over regional territories known as the Papal States. But revolutionary leaders were now seeking to unify Italy into a modern nation state—one that was freed from the influence of the church—and when the new Kingdom of Italy was established in 1870, that spelled the end of the power of the Papal States. Understandably, this didn’t go over well with the then Pope Pius IX, who retreated into the Vatican and declared himself a “prisoner.” A standoff between the church and Italy’s new secular government would last 60 years, with a total of five popes considering themselves “prisoners of the Vatican” until 1920s, when everything changed yet again …

Mussolini and the birth of the Vatican City State

Yep, it was Il Duce himself, the famous fascist, anti-cleric, and opportunist who was responsible for ending the decades-long dispute between the Catholic Church and the Italian government. Knowing he would need the support of Italian Catholics during his rise to power in the 1920s—and the Catholic Church would certainly need something from him if he succeeded—Pius XI enters secret negotiations with Mussolini. This all culminates in the signing of the Lateran Pacts on behalf of the Holy See and the Kingdom of Italy in February of 1929—which officially establishes Vatican City as an independent sovereign state. Both sides benefited from this rather unholy alliance—Mussolini becomes dictator and the separation of church and state in Italy ends. And the smallest country in the world continues to exert an influence that extends well beyond its border walls …

By the way, nothing remains of Constantine’s original St. Peter’s Basilica—but if you look closely, you can see it in the background of Raphael’s fresco The Fire in the Borgo.

10 fascinating facts about Vatican City you may not know

• If you do the crime in Vatican City, you can’t do the time—Although it does have a few holding cells for pre-trial detentions, Vatican City is believed to be the only nation on Earth not to have a prison. Per the Lateran Treaty, anyone convicted of a crime in Vatican City will serve their time in an Italian prison, with the Vatican government covering the costs of incarceration. Of course, those criminals also have to answer to a higher authority.


• Ironically, they could use a few jails—Because it is home to fewer than 1,000 official residents, the “per capita” crime rate in Vatican City is the highest of any country in the world. The reason for this is the vast majority of crimes like pickpocketing, shoplifting, and purse snatching are carried out by the millions of tourists who constantly stream into the tiny enclave country in the middle of Rome. So, you can gaze up in wonder all you want in Vatican City—but keep one of those eyes on your pocket.


• But it’s sacramental wine—The average resident of Vatican City consumes 74 liters of wine each year. Not only is that twice as much as residents from wine-loving countries like France or outside the walls in Italy, but that’s more wine per capita than anywhere else in the world. Some say it’s because Vatican residents tend to dine communally in large groups; others claim it’s because Vatican City’s only supermarket sells wine duty-free. But who are we to judge …


• No birthright citizenship here—With no hospitals or, more importantly, no delivery rooms, no one gets to be a citizen of Vatican City by birth. The only way to become a citizen of Vatican City is if you work in a certain capacity in the services of the Holy See, and then are granted citizenship. It’s extended to spouses and relatives who live together as well—but once the appointment ends, so does your citizenship.


• Carpe the pin code—Italian may be the official language of Vatican City, but the Holy See uses Latin as its official language—which means the Vatican Bank’s ATM also offers instructions in Latin. Now is that pin code V, IX, XII, VXIII or VI, IX, XII, VXIII?


• It’s no bullet train—With two tracks of less than a thousand feet and one station—Citta Vaticana—Vatican City is home to the shortest railway in the world. Built during the pontificate of Pope Pius XI (hey, Pius XI, that’s my pin code!), who led the Catholic Church from 1922 to 1939, the tracks and station are used to ferry goods, not people. Although it wouldn’t surprise us if they let the cardinals aboard …


• Stargazing Arizona—Many are aware that the Catholic Church has rejected scientific findings that conflicted with its doctrine—going so far as to persecute scientists like Galilei during the Inquisition and even having a 16th-century monk executed for proposing that the stars were actually other suns in the universe. Less known is that the Vatican itself built its first observatory in the 16th century to study astronomy in order to reform the Gregorian calendar. And even lesser known is that in 1981 the Vatican purchased a state-of-the-art telescope—one of the largest in the world—to conduct astronomical research. Perched atop Mount Graham in Arizona, the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope (VATT) is one of the best astronomical sites in the continental United States. Ironically, Galileo had to wait until 1992 to receive an apology from the Vatican.


• Between the devil and the deep Holy See—If you think the Catholic Church moved beyond exorcisms back in the Middle Ages, you’re way off. Father Gabriele Amorth, who died in 2016, performed some 160,000 exorcisms during his 60 years as the Vatican’s chief exorcist. The Vatican continues to welcome hundreds of priests from across the world to an annual exorcism workshop, where they can learn how to identify demonic possession and the rituals behind expelling demons. Just thinking about that is enough to make your head spin …


• He won’t care if he gets the death penalty—In 897 AD, Pope Formosus—who had expired seven months earlier, mind you—was put on trial by his political enemies, including his successor, Pope Stephen VI. With habeas corpus and all, the pope’s corpse was exhumed, dressed in appropriate courtroom attire, and made to stand trial (or would that be sit trial?) Unable to defend himself (being dead and all), Pope Formosus was found guilty. The death penalty made no sense, of course, so Formosus’s punishment was the retroactive annulment of his papacy. While his memory may not linger in the halls of justice, we’re guessing his odor does …


• What, you couldn’t just get a dog?!—At the beginning of the 16th century, Pope Leo X kept a white elephant called Hanno as his personal pet. The elephant was a gift from the Portuguese King Manuel I (this was a time when Christian rulers often presented gifts to the Vatican to curry favor—oh, perhaps the modern equivalent of one country giving another one a luxury jet). During Hanno’s first official appearance along the streets of Rome, the elephant reportedly dropped to its knees, bowed his head to the pope, trumpeted into the air, and then filled his trunk with water and sprayed it over the assembled crowd—including the pope. The Portuguese King also presented the pope with a cheetah, a couple of leopards, and a Persian horse—but Hanno was beloved by the pope, who was devasted when the elephant died two years later. Leo X composed a lengthy epitaph for Hanno and commissioned a memorial fresco from the artist Raphael. You’ll be closer than you think to Hanno the next time you visit Vatican City—his skeleton has been lying beneath the Vatican courtyard for centuries.