The Vatican

        The Vatican Flag

This week I would like to give a bit of information regarding the Vatican City which obviously the library is part of.  Although the Vatican became a state in 1929, the library and many of the buildings existed before this time with the library bring formally established in the 1400's.  The Vatican is in Rome, Italy.  It is the central government of the Catholic church.




A short history


In 326 the first church was built on the site which was believed to be the tomb of St Peter.  Once the Basilica was built the surrounding areas were largely developed with church buildings.  Popes gradually extended their control over the area and for more than a thousand years ruled a large portion of the Italian peninsula.  However, by 1860 most of the Papal states has been taken over by the Kingdom of Italy, with Rome being the last in 1870.  The position of the Pope was unclear and Popes of this time claimed they were "prisoners" in the Vatican.  In 1929 the dispute was resolved with the Italian Government and Catholic Church signing agreements that the Vatican was an indpendent state.




Some interesting facts about the Vatican include

• It is the world's smallest state
• It has an area of approximately 44 hectares
• The population is around 800
• In July 2007 the Vatican agreed to become the world's first carbon neutral state
• The head of the state is the Pope
• It has its own postal service, currency, newspaper, radio station and army
• It includes buildings such as St Peter's Basilica and the Sistine Chapel

Link to video of the Sistine Chapel (took a while to download on my computer)
http://mv.vatican.va/3_EN/pages/x-Pano/CSN/Visit_CSN_Main.html




Link to video of St Peter's Basilica
http://www.vatican.va/various/basiliche/san_pietro/vr_tour/index-en.html




My research


This weeks research was undertaken using a variety of internet sources.  I found that some of the dates in regard to the history of the Vatican did not correspond in different websites, although differences were only slight.  I am using the Vatican website as my main authority.  The more research I do the more questions I have.  However in my next blog I will be moving onto the library itself. 




References

http://www.fisheaters.com/vatican.html

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/vatican-city

http://www.emporis.com/wm/ci/bu/?id=102259

http://www.worldrover.com/history/vatican_city_history.html

http://www.vatican.va/