About a year and a half ago, I showed you a photo of St. Peter’s Square taken at night. It’s a photo I am proud of as I took it without a tripod trying to hold it as steady as possible. A few days later, I came back to the Vatican and shot this daylight image of the Square.
If you look at the other image, you will notice the obelisk is on the right side of the image…here it is on the left. In both images, you can see St. Peter’s quite clearly. It is a big, big church (or more properly, it is a basilica). Later this day, I wandered all over the inside of the basilica. I took several images on slide film, but the developed slides somehow disappeared. I saw them at home after they came back from the processor, but then they mysteriously vanished. I never found them. Sad.
You will notice a distinct lack of people in the square this day. It is just a few days after the start of the second Iraqi War and people all over Europe and the Americas stopped traveling, afraid of reprisal terrorist attacks. Later in the day, my friend Susan toured the Sistine Chapel (while I took off to see more Roman ruins) and she reported there were not very few people in there. The place is normally jammed with tourists.
The Vatican, AKA Vatican City (officially Vatican City State), is a landlocked sovereign city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome. It has an area of approximately 110 acres, and a population of around 840. Of course, its most important resident is the Pope, leader of the Catholic Church.
He is also the head of the Vatican government and all of the highest state functionaries are Catholic clergyman from around the world. The city-state itself is supported financially by the sale of postage stamps and tourist mementos, fees for admission to museums, and the sale of publications.
The Vatican became an independent city-state in 1929 during the reign of Pope Pius XI thanks to the Lateran Treaty between the Church and Italy (signed by Mussolini).
The Vatican is actually the property of the Holy See, the main organization of the Catholic Church which dates back to very early Christian times. It is the Holy See that oversees the church activities for 1.2 billion Catholics around the world. Surprisingly, the Vatican City State is distinct from the Holy See. The two entities have distinct passports: the Holy See, not being a country, issues only diplomatic and service passports, whereas Vatican City State issues normal passports for its citizens.
This is probably more information than you ever wanted to know about the Vatican, but when in Rome, its nice to know the territory.
(To see a larger version of this photo, just click on the image)
To see more of my work, both in photography and digital painting, please visit my website, www.corkrum.com
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