The
Vatican in Rome is an autonomous State governed by the Pontificate
and officially recognized through the "Patti Lateranensi" of 1929
by the Italian Republic.
It is located on the right of the Tevere River, around the
Basilica of San Pietro, on the site where, during the first period
of the Imperial Rome, among the numerous Christians who suffered
the martyr, it seems that there was also San Pietro.
According to tradition the St. Peter's Basilica (Saint 
Peter) is built on the
tomb of the apostle Peter, crucified and sentenced around 60 AC.
The works, started in 315 AC, were finished about eleven years
later, when Pope Silvestro II consecrated the church with a
solemnly ceremony.
After more than a millennium of history the building, in which
were also hosted some frescoes of Giotto, had reached a degree of
heavy degradation when Pope Nicola V decided a radical restoration
entrusted to Leon Battista Alberti and Bernardo Rossellino. After
the death of the Pontificate, however, Pope Giulio II decided to
interrupt the works, changing the project into the building of a
new cathedral
On the order of
Mussolini, the urban asset of the area in front of the columns of
Bernini was radically changed to leave the space for the "Via della
Conciliazione", parts of the antique villages were destroyed