Circus of Nero

Santa Maria in Turri was an ancient church in the city of Rome, demolished in the Renaissance. It adjoined the outside atrium of the ancient Basilica of St. Peter, one of a complex of small churches or oratories that grew up around the site.

The Vatican Christmas Tree, also called the Saint Peter's Square Christmas Tree, is the decorated tree that is erected annually in the Saint Peter's Square directly in front of St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican City to celebrate the Christmas holiday season. The tradition of placing a Christmas tree as well as the life-size Nativity scene in Saint Peter's Square started in 1982 during the pontificate of Pope John Paul II, when the Polish-born Pope introduced the northern European symbol of Christmas spirit. The tradition of erecting a Christmas Tree was celebrated in northern Europe and in Poland, Pope John Paul II's country of origin, but not in the Vatican at the time. The first tree came from Italy. Since then, the offering of the Christmas Tree to the Pope has become an honour, and each year the Vatican accepts a tree donated by a different European country or region.The Christmas tree is installed in the centre of Saint Peter's Square, together with a life-size nativity scene that is unveiled on Christmas Eve. The nativity scene has seventeen life-size statues. Of these, nine are the original figures donated in 1842 by Saint Vincent Pallotti for the nativity scene in the Roman church of Sant'Andrea della Valle, and the other eight figures were added over the course of the years. In 2006 the Italian province of Trentino, and the local council of a village of Tesero, have provided a further thirteen sculpted wooden figures and animals, as well as household utensils for the depiction of daily life.

The Church of Our Lady of Mercy in the Teutonic Cemetery (Latin: Sancta Maria Pietatis in Coemeterio Teutonicorum, Italian: Santa Maria della Pietà in Camposanto dei Teutonici) is a Roman Catholic church in the rione Borgo of Rome, Italy. It is located on the Via della Sagrestia. The building lies near the Vatican City, is attached and adjacent to the Collegio Teutonico, and the German Teutonic Cemetery in Vatican City. The site belonged to the Schola Francorum, a hospice for German pilgrims which was the oldest German institution in Rome. The church, lying in piazza Protomartiri Romani, is in the area of the Palazzo del Sant'Uffizo, which belongs to Italy but according to the Lateran treaty has an extraterritorial status in favour of the Holy See. The term "Teutonico" is a reference to the Germanic peoples. The church is the National Church in Rome of Austria, Germany, and the Netherlands.

The Collegio Teutonico (German College), historically often referred to by its Latin name Collegium Germanicum, is one of the Pontifical Colleges of Rome. The German College is the Pontifical College established for future ecclesiastics of German nationality. It is divided into two separate colleges; the Pontificio Collegio Teutonico di S. Maria dell’ Anima and the Collegio Teutonico del Campo Santo.

The Teutonic Cemetery (Italian: Campo Santo dei Teutonici e dei Fiamminghi, "Camposanto of the Teutons and the Flemish") is a burial site in Rome adjacent to St. Peter's Basilica. Burial is reserved for members of the Confraternity of Our Lady of the German Cemetery, which owns the cemetery. It is a place of pilgrimage for many German-speaking pilgrims. The cemetery lies entirely outside the borders of Vatican City; it is an extraterritorial property of the Holy See as designated under the Lateran Treaty of 1929.

The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) is the oldest among the departments of the Roman Curia. Its seat is the Palace of the Holy Office in Rome. It was founded to defend the Catholic Church from heresy and is the body responsible for promulgating and defending Roman Catholic doctrine.Formerly known as the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition (1542–1908); the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office (1908–1965); and then until June 2022 the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF; Latin: Congregatio pro Doctrina Fidei). It is still informally known as the Holy Office (Latin: Sanctum Officium) in many Catholic countries.Founded by Pope Paul III in 21 July 1542, the sole objective of the dicastery is to "spread sound Catholic doctrine and defend those points of Christian tradition which seem in danger because of new and unacceptable doctrines."Its headquarters are at the Palace of the Holy Office, just outside Vatican City. The congregation employs an advisory board including cardinals, bishops, priests, lay theologians, and canon lawyers. The current Cardinal Prefect is Luis Ladaria Ferrer, who was appointed by Pope Francis for a five-year term since 1 July 2017.

The Palace of the Holy Office (Italian: Palazzo del Santo Uffizio) is a building in Rome which is an extraterritorial property of Vatican City. It houses the Holy Office of the Roman Catholic Church. The palace is situated south of Saint Peter's Basilica near the Petrine Gate to Vatican City. The building lies outside the confines of Vatican City at the south-eastern corner of the city-state. It is one of the properties of the Holy See in Italy regulated by the 1929 Lateran Treaty signed with the Kingdom of Italy. As such, it has extraterritorial status. The palace was first built after 1514 for Cardinal Lorenzo Pucci, and it was called Palazzo Pucci. Its façade was rebuilt in 1524–1525 by the architects Giuliano Leni, Pietro Roselli and even Michelangelo. When Pucci died in 1531, the building was still not fully completed.In 1566–1567, the palace was purchased by Pope Pius V for 9000 scudi, and it was converted into the seat of the Holy Office. Renovation works were undertaken by Pirro Ligorio and Giovanni Sallustio Peruzzi. A complete renovation of the building was made by Pietro Guidi between 1921 and 1925.It is where Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger formerly worked as Prefect of the Congregation.

The Archive of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (ACDF), commonly referred to as the Archive of the Inquisition (or more fully the Archive of the Inquisition and Index), contains the Catholic Church's documents dealing with doctrinal and theological issues related to church teaching. It also contains information on political trials that were carried out when the papacy had temporal power over the Papal States.

The Cappella Paolina (the Pauline Chapel) is a chapel in the Apostolic Palace, Vatican City. It is separated from the Sistine Chapel by the Sala Regia. It is not on any of the regular tourist itineraries. Michelangelo's two frescoes in the Cappella Paolina, The Conversion of Saul and The Crucifixion of St Peter were painted from 1542 to 1549, the height of his fame, but were widely viewed as disappointments and even failures by their contemporary audience. They did not conform to the compositional conventions of the time and the subject-matter is depicted in an unorthodox manner. Despite the importance of the chapel and the significance of their subjects, the frescoes were generally neglected and overlooked in favor of Michelangelo's nearby masterpieces in the Sistine Chapel.An Italian scholar has recognised Michelangelo's face both in the Saint Paul and Saint Peter paintings by facial superimposition.

The Vatican sexual abuse summit, officially the Meeting on the Protection of Minors in the Church (Italian: Incontro su “La Protezione dei Minori nella Chiesa”), was a four-day Catholic Church summit meeting in Vatican City that ran from 21 to 24 February 2019, convened by Pope Francis to discuss preventing sexual abuse by Catholic Church clergy.

The Paul VI Audience Hall (Italian: Aula Paolo VI) also known as the Hall of the Pontifical Audiences is a building in Rome named for Pope Paul VI with a seating capacity of 6,300, designed in reinforced concrete by the Italian architect Pier Luigi Nervi and completed in 1971. It was constructed on land donated by the Knights of Columbus.It lies partially in the Vatican City but mostly in Italy: the Italian part of the building is treated as an extraterritorial area of the Holy See, and is used by the Pope as an alternative to Saint Peter's Square when conducting his Wednesday morning General Audience. It is dominated by an 800-quintal (80-tonne) bronze/copper-alloy sculpture by Pericle Fazzini entitled La Resurrezione (Italian for The Resurrection). A smaller meeting hall, known as Synod Hall (Aula del Sinodo), is located in the building as well. This hall sits at the east end on a second floor.

The Vision of Constantine is an equestrian sculpture by the Italian artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini, located in the Scala Regia by St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. Originally commissioned as a free standing work of art within St. Peter's itself, the sculpture was finally unveiled in 1670 as an integral part of the Scala Regia - Bernini's redesigned stairway between St. Peter's Basilica and the Vatican Palace. Unlike other large works by Bernini, art historians have suggested that this work was almost entirely undertaken by him - no other sculptors have been recorded as receiving payment. Bernini's overall fee was 7,000 Roman scudi.