History
Vatican City*
UNESCO World Heritage Site
State Party Holy See
Type Cultural
Criteria i, ii, iv, vi
Reference 286
Region† Europe
Inscription history
Inscription 1984 (8th Session)
* Name as inscribed on World Heritage List.
† Region as classified by UNESCO.
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.
The area was also the site of worship to the Phrygian goddess Cybele and her consort Attis during Roman
times.[8] Agrippina the Elder (14 BC – 18 October AD 33) drained the hill and environs and built her gardens
there in the early 1st century AD.
Emperor Caligula (37-41) started construction of a circus (40) that was later completed by Nero, the Circus
Gaii et Neronis.[9]
The Vatican obelisk was originally taken by Caligula from Heliopolis 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 64.
Ancient tradition holds that it was in this circus that Saint Peter was crucified upside down.
Opposite the circus was a cemetery separated by the Via Cornelia.
Funeral monuments and mausoleums and small tombs as well as altars to pagan gods of all kinds of poly-
theistic religions were constructed lasting until before the construction of the Constantinian Basilica of
St. Peter's in the first half of the 4th century.
Remains of this ancient necropolis were brought to light sporadically during renovations by various popes throughout the centuries increasing in frequency during the Renaissance until it was systematically ex-
cavated by orders of Pope Pius XII from 1939 to 1941 .
In 326, the first church, the Constantinian basilica, was built over the site that Catholic apologists as well
as noted Italian archaeologists argue was the tomb of Saint Peter, buried in a common cemetery on the spot.
From then on the area started to become more populated, but mostly only by dwelling houses connected with
the activity of St. Peter's.
A palace was constructed near the site of the basilica as early as the 5th century during the pontificate of
Pope Symmachus (b. ?? – d. Jul. 19, 514; pope 498-514).[10]
