Vatican City

Vatican City is a sovereign city-state, an enclave within Rome, ruled by the pope and governed by the Holy See as the administrative center of the Catholic Church. Catholic theology holds that Saint Peter was crucified on Vatican Hill in the 1st century. The Holy See ruled the Papal States, formed in 756, until the capture of Rome by the Kingdom of Italy in 1870, after which the pope declared himself a prisoner in the Vatican; the Lateran Treaty of 1929 created the modern state. With 0.49 square kilometres and about 882 people it is the smallest country by area and population, and it holds St. Peter's Basilica, the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican Library.