Vatican City covers about 49 hectares and is the world’s smallest independent state.
The sovereign Vatican City State occupies roughly 0.49 square kilometres, or about 49 hectares, inside Rome. Its territory includes St. Peter’s Basilica and Square, the Apostolic Palace, the Vatican Gardens, museums, offices, and a small railway system. Because the state is an urban enclave rather than a conventional rural country, nearly every part of its land serves a civic, religious, cultural, or administrative purpose.
Vatican City was established as an independent state by the Lateran Treaty, signed by the Holy See and Italy in 1929. The agreement ended the long dispute over papal territorial sovereignty that followed the loss of the Papal States in 1870. The modern state provides the Holy See with territorial independence and became a major symbol of the pope’s sovereign status.
Nauru, Monaco, and San Marino are all exceptionally small, but none is smaller by area. The Vatican is also commonly called the world’s smallest country by population, although “Vatican City State” is the formal name of the sovereign entity.