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The Vatican Gardens in Vatican City
Vatican City

Vatican City , officially the State of the Vatican City , is a Landlocked country sovereignty city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome, the Capital of Italy....
 are urban garden
Garden

A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the display, cultivation, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The garden can incorporate both natural and man-made materials....
s and park
Urban park

An urban park, also known as a municipal park or a public park or open space , is a park in cities and other Municipal corporation to offer recreation and green space to residents of and visitors to the municipality....
s which cover more than half of the Vatican
Vatican City

Vatican City , officially the State of the Vatican City , is a Landlocked country sovereignty city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome, the Capital of Italy....
 territory. Located in the South and Northeast, some buildings such as Radio Vatican
Vatican Radio

Vatican Radio is the official broadcasting service of the Vatican City.Set up in 1931 by Guglielmo Marconi, today its programs are offered in 47 languages, and are sent out on short wave , medium wave, FM radio, satellite and the Internet radio....
 are embedded within.

The surface amounts to c. 20 Hectare
Hectare

A hectare is a unit of area equal to , or one square hectometre , and commonly used for surveying.The hectare is used in most countries around the world, especially in domains concerned with land ownership, land planning, and land management, including law , agriculture, forestry, and town planning....
s (200,000 m²
Square metre

The square metre is the SI derived unit of area, with symbol m?. It is defined as the area of a square whose sides measure exactly one metre....
) and covers most of the Vatican Hill
Vatican Hill

Vatican Hill is the name given, long before the founding of Christianity, to one of the hills on the side of the Tiber opposite the traditional seven hills of Rome....
. The highest point reaches 60 metres ASL.






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The Vatican Gardens in Vatican City
Vatican City

Vatican City , officially the State of the Vatican City , is a Landlocked country sovereignty city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome, the Capital of Italy....
 are urban garden
Garden

A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the display, cultivation, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The garden can incorporate both natural and man-made materials....
s and park
Urban park

An urban park, also known as a municipal park or a public park or open space , is a park in cities and other Municipal corporation to offer recreation and green space to residents of and visitors to the municipality....
s which cover more than half of the Vatican
Vatican City

Vatican City , officially the State of the Vatican City , is a Landlocked country sovereignty city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome, the Capital of Italy....
 territory. Located in the South and Northeast, some buildings such as Radio Vatican
Vatican Radio

Vatican Radio is the official broadcasting service of the Vatican City.Set up in 1931 by Guglielmo Marconi, today its programs are offered in 47 languages, and are sent out on short wave , medium wave, FM radio, satellite and the Internet radio....
 are embedded within.

The surface amounts to c. 20 Hectare
Hectare

A hectare is a unit of area equal to , or one square hectometre , and commonly used for surveying.The hectare is used in most countries around the world, especially in domains concerned with land ownership, land planning, and land management, including law , agriculture, forestry, and town planning....
s (200,000 m²
Square metre

The square metre is the SI derived unit of area, with symbol m?. It is defined as the area of a square whose sides measure exactly one metre....
) and covers most of the Vatican Hill
Vatican Hill

Vatican Hill is the name given, long before the founding of Christianity, to one of the hills on the side of the Tiber opposite the traditional seven hills of Rome....
. The highest point reaches 60 metres ASL. Stone walls bound the area in the North, South and West.

The gardens and parks were established during the Renaissance
Renaissance

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe....
 and Baroque
Baroque

In the the arts, the Baroque was a Western cultural Epoch , starting roughly at the beginning of the 17th century in Rome, Italy. It was exemplified by drama and grandeur in Baroque sculpture, Baroque painting, literature, Baroque dance, and Baroque music....
 era. They are decorated by fountains and sculptures. Some springs are under the earth as well but are not in use nowadays. The population is very broad as it is considered a biotope
Biotope

Biotope is an area of uniform environmental conditions providing a living place for a specific assemblage of flora and fauna . Biotope is almost synonymous with the term habitat , but while the subject of a habitat is a species or a population, the subject of a biotope is a biocoenosis....
.

History

Tradition says that the site of the Vatican Gardens was spread with earth brought from Golgotha
Calvary

Calvary or Golgotha are the English language/Western Christian names given to the site, outside of ancient Jerusalem?s early 1st century walls, ascribed to Jesus's crucifixion....
 by Saint Helena
Helena of Constantinople

Saint Helena also known as Saint Helen, Helena Augusta or Helena of Constantinople was the consort of Roman Emperor Constantius Chlorus, and the mother of Emperor Constantine I....
 to symbolically unite the blood of Christ
Christ

Christ is the English language term for the Greek meaning "the anointing", which is a title given to the Reigning Messiah in the given age of the Zodiac....
 with that shed by thousands of early Christians
Early Christianity

Early Christianity is commonly defined as the Christianity of the three centuries between the Crucifixion of Jesus and the First Council of Nicaea ....
, who died in the persecutions of Nero
Nero

Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus , born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, also called Nero Claudius Caesar Drusus Germanicus, was the fifth and final Roman emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty....
. The gardens date back to medieval times when orchards and vineyards extended to the north of the Papal Apostolic Palace. In 1279 Pope Nicholas III
Pope Nicholas III

Pope Nicholas III , born Giovanni Gaetano Orsini, Pope from November 25, 1277 to his death in 1280, was a Roman nobleman who had served under eight Popes, been made cardinal-deacon of St....
 (Giovanni Gaetano Orsini, 1277-1280) moved his residence back to the Vatican from the Lateran Palace and enclosed this area with walls. He planted an orchard (pomerium), a lawn (pratellum) and a garden (viridarium). The site received a major re-landscaping at the beginning of the 16th century, during the papacy of Julius II
Pope Julius II

Pope Julius II , nicknamed Il Papa Terribile , was born Giuliano della Rovere. He was Pope from 1503 to 1513. His reign was marked by an aggressive foreign policy, ambitious building projects, and patronage for the arts....
. Donato Bramante
Donato Bramante

Donato Bramante was an Italian architect, who introduced the Early Renaissance style to Milan and the High Renaissance style to Rome, where his most famous design was St....
's original design was then split into three new courtyards, the Cortili del Belvedere, the “della Biblioteca” and the “della Pigna” (or Pine Cone) in the Renaissance
Renaissance

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe....
 landscape design style. Also in Renaissance style, a great rectangular Labyrinth
Labyrinth

In Greek mythology, the Labyrinth was an elaborate structure designed and built by the legendary artificer Daedalus for King Minos of Crete at Knossos....
, formal in design, set in boxwood
Buxus

Buxus is a genus of about 70 species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box or boxwood .The boxes are native to western and southern Europe, southwest, southern and eastern Asia, Africa, Madagascar, northernmost South America, Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean, with the majority of species tropical...
 and framed with Italian stone pine
Stone Pine

The Stone Pine is a species of pine native of Southern Europe in the Mediterranean region. This tree has been exploited for its edible pine nuts since prehistoric times....
s, (Pinus pinea) and cedars of Lebanon
Lebanon Cedar

Cedrus libani , is a species of cedar native to the mountains of the Mediterranean region, in Lebanon, western Syria and south central Turkey, with variety of it in southwest Turkey, Cyprus, and the Atlas Mountains in Algeria and Morocco in northwest Africa....
, (Cedrus libani). In place of Nicholas III's enclosure, Bramante built a great rectilinear defensive wall.

Today's Vatican Gardens are spread over nearly 23 hectares, they contain a variety of medieval fortifications, buildings and monuments from the ninth century to the present day, set amongst vibrant flower beds and topiary, green lawns and a 3 hectare patch of forest. A variety of fountains spread a veil of freshness over the gardens while sculpture and artificial grottoes proclaim devotion to the Madonna
Mary (mother of Jesus)

Mary , usually referred to by Christians as Saint Mary, the Virgin Mary, Holy Mary or the Madonna, was a Jewish woman of Nazareth in Galilee, identified in the New Testament as the mother of Jesus of Nazareth....
, and an olive tree
Olive

The Olive is a species of small tree in the family Oleaceae, native to the coastal areas of the eastern Mediterranean region, from Lebanon, Syria and the maritime parts of Turkey and northern Iran at the south end of the Caspian Sea....
 donated by the government of Israel
Israel

Israel officially the State of Israel , is a country in the Middle East located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area....
 extends its three verdant branches.

Gallery

Image:Vatican Gardens 1.jpg|Vatican Gardens Image:Vatican Gardens 2.jpg|Vatican Gardens Image:Vatican Gardens 4.jpg|Palace of the Governorate of Vatican City State Image:Vatican Gardens 6.jpg|Vatican Gardens

See also

  • Geography of Vatican City
  • Urban park
    Urban park

    An urban park, also known as a municipal park or a public park or open space , is a park in cities and other Municipal corporation to offer recreation and green space to residents of and visitors to the municipality....
  • Vatican Climate Forest
    Vatican Climate Forest

    The Vatican Climate Forest, to be located in the B?kk National Park, Hungary, was donated to the Vatican City by a carbon offsetting company. The forest is to be sized to offset the carbon emissions generated by the Vatican during 2007....


External links


  • — Vatican Gardens (official Website)


Sources


The initial version is based upon the article :it:Giardini Vaticani of the Italian language edition of Wikipedia. Data concerning the measures of lengths were taken from the article :de:Vatikanische Gärten of the German language edition of Wikipedia.