The Vatican

One of the stops on our June cruise was Rome, which included a visit to the Vatican. The Vatican is a city-state, one of the world’s smallest countries. It is also known as the Holy See, the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome. The primacy of Rome makes its bishop the worldwide leader of the church, commonly known as the Pope. Since Rome is the preeminent episcopal see of the church, it contains the central government of the church, including various agencies essential to administration. The Holy See acts and speaks for the whole Catholic Church. It is also recognized by other subjects of international law as a sovereign entity, headed by the Pope, with which diplomatic relations can be maintained. It has its own flag; I have included a picture of it for you.

I start with a photograph of the entrance to the Vatican taken from the street leading to its front entrance. St. Peter’s Basilica is prominent in the background.

Fact: The currency of the Vatican is the euro.

In the photo above, to the right you will note a part of the ring of columns that encloses St. Peter’s Square in front of the Basilica. This next shot is a close-up view of the ring taken from one end. This perspective provides a good sense of the scale of these columns and the perimeter ring.

Fact: Security for the Vatican is the responsibility of the Pontifical Swiss Guard (Corpo della Guardia Svizzera Pontificia).

The following picture shows St. Peter’s Square taken from an exit from the Basilica.

Fact: Dignitaries, priests, nuns, guards, and 3,000 lay workers employed at the Holy See live outside the Vatican.

This view of St. Peter’s Square shows one of the fountains that adorn this large area. If you look closely you can see this one on the right hand side of the picture above.  I’ve “frozen” the movement in this shot with a very fast shutter speed (1/2000th sec.)

Fact: The Vatican broadcasts radio on three frequencies and has one television channel.

My last photograph from St. Peter’s Square is a close-up of the front face of the Basilica, featuring the Papal Balcony. We’ve all seen news clips of the Pope addressing huge crowds in the square from this balcony on special occasions.

Fact: The perimeter of the Vatican is 3.2 km and its permanent population is 832.

The remainder of today’s pictures were taken inside St. Peter’s Basilica and the Vatican Museum. I’m presenting them in a captioned slide show. Rather than write a whole lot about each, I’m counting on each photo expressing 1000 words + the caption. Click on the right side of a photo to advance, on the left to back up.