Vatican City

The State of Vatican City covers an area extending from a short distance from the right bank of the Tiber and includes a slight elevation, of what was anciently known as the Vatican Hill, the old Ager Vaticanus on which summer villas were built during the republican period. Caligula constructed there his private circus, in which, as in the adjacent gardens, the early Christians would seem te have been martyred. To the north of the circus, along a secondary route, there was a necropolis in which Saint Peter was buried. Between the years 324 and 326 Constantine erected over the place of the tomb of the first Pope, an imposing basilica which was replaced by the actual one built between the 16th and the 17th century.

The entire territory of the State of Vatican City is placed under the protection of the La Haye Convention of 14 May 1954, concerning the safeguard of cultural goods in case of armed conflict. The Vatican City is thus recognized - and this is so also in international discipline - as a moral, artistic and cultural patrimony worthy of being respected and protected as a treasure belonging to humanity. From 1984 the State of Vatican City is registered in the world Heritage List.

There exist some minor areas outside State territory and located within Italy which enjoy extraterritorial rights, such as the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, San Giovanni in Laterano and San Paolo fuori le Mura, with adjacent buildings; some palaces and Roman villas which house pontifical administrations; the villas and Palace of Castel Gandolfo, which is the summer residence of the Pope; the area located in Cesano (Santa Maria di Galeria) at about 25 km from Rome.