Vatican City Flag

Vatican City Flag

Vatican City Flag

The Vatican City State, which occupies 44 hectares (110 acres) of sovereign land within the City of Rome, Italy, is the smallest independent country in the word. The kingdom of Italy having been proclaimed in 1861, in 1870 France withdrew the troops from Rome that it had sent to protect the pope during Italy's unification struggle, whereupon Italian forces entered the city, which subsequently became the capital of Italy. Pope Pius IX (who reigned between 1846 and 1878) protested his loss of temporal power by retreating into the Vatican, a papal residence since 1377. In 1929, the Lateran Treaty finally reconciled the Italian government with the Roman Catholic Church, the Vatican City being recognized as an independent state.

Although the papal colors were historically red and gold, in 1808 Pope Pius VII (who reigned from 1800 to 1823) chose the new colors of yellow (gold) and silver (white), which are said to be those of St Peter's Keys to the gates of heaven. A square, discolored, yellow-white flag, with St Peter's keys in the white fly stripe supporting the papal crown (the three tiers of which denote the three types of temporal power vested in the pope: legislative, executive and judicial) was adopted in 1825 and used until 1870. The Vatican City flag was reintroduced in 1929, when Italy granted the Vatican City its independent status.