Title: Original Antique Book Print EngravingImage Vatican Square
Shipping: $29.00
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Origin: Southern Europe > Italy
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Item Date: N/A
Item ID: 27
A wonderful engraving of the Vatican. This was a rare folded book insert as an Illustrated page engraving of the Vatican Square. St. Peter's Basilica and St. Peter's Square in Vatican City, Rome, Italy, historical engraving, print 18th Century, An amazing Ariel drawing of St Peter's Basilica, Rome, and the elliptical piazza and colonnades.
Even before the arrival of Christianity, it is supposed that this originally uninhabited part of Rome (the ager vaticanus) had long been considered sacred, or at least not available for habitation. A shrine dedicated to the Phrygian goddess Cybele and her consort Attis remained active long after the Constantinian Basilica of St. Peter was built nearby. The Vatican Obelisk was originally taken by Caligula from Heliopolis in Egypt to decorate the spina of his circus and is thus its last visible remnant. This area became the site of martyrdom of many Christians after the Great Fire of Rome in AD 64. Ancient tradition holds that it was in this circus that Saint Peter was crucified upside-down. The Constantinian basilica was built in 326 over what was believed to be the tomb of Saint Peter, buried in that cemetery.
Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vatican_City
Vatican City State (Italian: Stato della Città del Vaticano; Latin: Status Civitatis Vaticanae), is an independent city–state enclaved within Rome, Italy. Established with the Lateran Treaty (1929), it is distinct from yet under "full ownership, exclusive dominion, and sovereign authority and jurisdiction" of the Holy See (Latin: Sancta Sedes). With an area of 44 hectares (110 acres), and a population of about 1,000, it is the smallest sovereign state in the world by both area and population.
