Vatican City - The World's Tiniest Country, Know About Its History and Culture

It takes about 40 minutes to walk around the entire island.

The Papal States, which encompassed much of modern-day Italy, was ruled by the popes.

The Popes erected St. Peter's Basilica, the world's biggest church, and a wall around the base of the hill known as the Vatican, on which St. Peter's stood, during their thousand-year reign.

The kingdom of Italy believed Rome would be a good capital for them, so they conquered the Papal States, killed the Pope, hid behind the walls of the Vatican, and alternately refused to acknowledge the kingdom of Italy's existence while complaining about being a prisoner of the kingdom of Italy, which they claim does not exist.

Rather than risk religious civil war by deposing the pope, the Kingdom of Italy resolved to wait him out, thinking that he would ultimately relent. However, religion is nothing if not tenacious, and nothing had changed after five popes and sixty years.

This leads us to Benito Mussolini, the then-Prime Minister of Italy, who was weary of hearing the Pope lament to Italian Catholics about his self-imposed confinement, and decided to strike a compromise that looked like this-

1] The Pope was given the land of the Vatican by Italy.

2] Italy handed the Pope a large sum of money as an apology.

In exchange, the Pope acknowledges the existence of Italy.

3] The Pope committed to staying politically and militarily neutral.

On the odd possibility that Mussolini felt this would be a good idea.

The agreement was signed, and a new country, Vatican City, was founded. Today, the little nation on a hill has everything a country should have: its own government, which adopts its own laws, which are enforced by its own police, who imprison anyone who disobeys them.

It also has its own bank, makes its own stamps, and issues its own license plates, albeit only its inhabitants are permitted to drive within its limits, owing to poor parking.

The true mark of any self-respecting country is the presence of its own top-level domain.

Despite all of these national characteristics, Vatican City is unlike any other country.

To comprehend the Vatican, you must first grasp two persons and two things: the renowned pope, the Holy See, the kingdom of Vatican City, and the monarch of Vatican City.

1} The Pope and the holy see:

The Pope has a seat on which he can sit and from which he can operate as a Bishop for all of Rome's Catholics.

In the Catholic Church, all bishops have their own thrones, but because the Bishop of Rome is also the Pope, his throne is unique and is known as the Holy See.

When a Pope dies or retires, a game of thrones is played to see which of the bishops will be the next to occupy the Holy See. Does this mean that while Popes come and go, the thrones are eternal? As a result, the word "Holy See" refers not only to the throne but also to all of the regulations that make the Catholic Church what it is.

Mussolini technically ceded the territory of Vatican City to the Holy See when he created that aforementioned arrangement, which, believe it or not, is a legal corporate entity in international law.

2} The king and the country:

Within the country's borders, the king of Vatican City wields absolute, unfettered power, making it one of only six surviving absolute monarchy in the world, with Brunei, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Swaziland.

Because only democracies are permitted, Vatican City is unable to join the European Union due to the king's total power.

Though properly speaking, Vatican City has a legislative arm of government staffed by cardinals nominated by the Pope.

For whatever cause, the ruler of Vatican City has the authority to override their judgments at any moment.

Though the duties of King and Pope are distinct, they are both held by the same person at the same time, resulting in the pope being elected and the King being all-powerful, yet they are the same person, making Vatican City the world's only elected, non-hereditary absolute monarchy.

It is because of this dual function that untangling Vatican City is so difficult, for the Pope operates as either the king of the kingdom of Vatican City or the pope of the Holy See, depending on the occasion.

Citizenship in Vatican City:

There are no hospitals in the Vatican, thus no one can be born there!

The only way to become a citizen of Vatican City is for the king to designate you as one, and the king will only do so if you work for the Pope, who is also the king, and because the king is all-powerful, your citizenship is subject to his whim.

If you abandon your employment to serve the Pope, your citizenship will be revoked by the King, who is also the Pope. According to the latest predictions from the UN's World Population Prospects, it will have a population of 801 people by 2020.

It is now ranked 235th in the world.

Because of these restrictions, Vatican City does not have a permanent population.