The Vatican is a unique state for many reasons. Because of its location, status, place in the world.
The Vatican enclave state is located in Italy, inside the territory of Rome. It is the smallest state in the world.
Going to the Italian capital, tourists will certainly look into the Vatican - the heart of world Catholicism.
This is where the residence of the Pope is located. Why is this dwarf state so interesting?
Further, I propose to read more unique and interesting facts about the Vatican.
1) The Vatican is the smallest state in the world. Its area is only 44 hectares.
However, the country prints its own postage stamps, issues passports and license plates, and also has its own flag and anthem.
2) The Vatican is named after the hill of MonsVaticanus. Translated from the Latin Vacitinia means a place of divination.
3) The Vatican is an enclave state: it is completely located inside the territory of another country.
The length of the state border of the Vatican with Italy is 3.2 km.
4) The Vatican acquired the status of an independent state on February 11, 1929.
5) Vatican citizenship is granted only to those who are in the public service - ministers of the Holy See and representatives of the Swiss Guard of the Pope.
According to the Lateran Agreement of 1929, if a person ceases to be a citizen of the Vatican,
he is automatically granted Italian citizenship.
6) The Cardinals choose the Pope for life.
7) 95% of the inhabitants of the Vatican are men. In total, about 840 people live in the country.
8) For more than a hundred years, the Vatican has not known fires, but 20 firefighters have been around the clock. By the way, there are only 3 fire engines.
9) Pope Benedict XVI actively uses a mobile phone, regularly sending messages to his subscribers with sermons.
A special channel has been created on YouTube, where various ceremonies are broadcast.
And on the iPhone you can install the application with daily prayers for Catholics.
10) In the Vatican's ATMs, you can choose Latin for transactions.
11) The only bank in the country is called the Institute of Religious Affairs.
12) The Vatican does not have its own official language. Documents are most often published in Italian and Latin,
and people speak English, Italian, French, German, Spanish and other languages.
13) The Vatican has the only supermarket called Annona. Not everyone can buy goods there, but only those who have a special DIRESCO pass.
14) The Vatican has its own football team. It consists of members of the armed forces, members of the papal council and curators of local museums.
True, the Vatican team is not a member of FIFA.
15) The Vatican has a planned economy. This means that the government is entrusted with managing the state budget of $ 310 million.
16) Vatican priests regularly cast out evil spirits. According to the chief exorcist Father Gabriel Amorth, every year it is possible to expel about 300 demons.
17) Vatican residents drink more wine than in any other country in the world: an average of 105 bottles per year.
18) A small state has several types of armed forces: the Palatine (palace) guard, the Papal gendarmerie, the Noble guard.
Separately, it is worth mentioning the famous Swiss Guard, subordinate exclusively to the Holy See.
19) The Pope has a Twitter account.
20) The Vatican has one of the highest crime rates in the world. Most often, tourists and hired workers from Italy go for sinful acts.
21) All state buildings are landmarks.
22) Pius IX is the longest rule in the Vatican: 32 years.
23) There is not a single airport in the Vatican. There is one helipad and a 852 m long railway
connecting the station at St. Peter's Basilica with the main Italian network.
24) The majestic St. Peter's Cathedral surpasses the size of all the world's Christian churches.
The author of the grandiose architectural ensemble is Italian Giovanni Bernini.
25) Above the building of the cathedral rises a huge 136-meter dome - the brainchild of Michelangelo.
26) Stephen II spent only 4 days as a pope. He died due to an attack of apoplexy and did not even live to see the coronation.
27) The main sources of income of the Vatican are donations from Catholics from around the world and tourism.
28) Pope-mobiles, ( or Pope cars ) for the movement of the Pope, seem to be very extravagant.
29) In the Vatican, marriages are extremely rare and children are born. Although in 2014, Pope Francis immediately married 20 couples who lived “in sin”.
Some of them already had children at that time.
30) Today, you can easily get acquainted with papal correspondence even a thousand years ago, but you need to know what you want to read.
The length of the bookshelves is 83 kilometers, and no one will walk around the halls in search of the necessary literature.
31) St. Peter's Square is the largest Roman square, its size is 340 by 240 meters.
32) The Vatican Apostolic Library is one of the richest in the world.
It contains the most extensive collection of manuscripts from the Middle Ages and Renaissance.
The library funds include about 1.6 million printed books and 150 thousand manuscripts.
Here is the oldest copy of the Bible, released in 325.
33) The border of the Vatican with Italy is not officially designated, but formally it passes through St. Peter's Square.
34) The Sistine Chapel closes only during the election of the Pope. The voting results can be found on the column of smoke from the burning of ballots.
If the new head of the Vatican is selected, then the chapel is enveloped in white smoke, otherwise black.
35) The Vatican has a literacy rate of 100%.
36 ) State telephone code: 0-03906
37) In the Vatican you can buy a souvenir calendar with the image of the most attractive Catholic priests.
The work belongs to Italian photographer Piero Pazzi. The cost of Calendario Romano is 10 euros.
38) About an hour will be required to go around the Vatican around the perimeter.
39) The Vatican officially recognized that the Earth revolves around the Sun only in 1992. John Paul II delivered a speech,
in which he recognized Galileo as a brilliant physicist and expressed regret that the theologians who sentenced the scientist
too literally adhered to the text of the Holy Scripture.
40) In this state you will not find a single traffic light.
41) The Vatican's monetary unit is the euro. Coins with their own symbols are minted in the state.
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