The Papal States & the Vatican

800 - 1388

The County of Provence emerged as a distinct feudal entity, with Aix-en-Provence as its capital. The Avignon Papacy (1309-1377) concentrated ecclesiastical power and wealth in the region, building the Palais des Papes—the largest Gothic palace in Europe—and reshaping religious culture across Provence. The Nice Carnival was first documented in 1294. Penitent confraternities (Pénitents Noirs, Blancs, Bleus) formed as custodians of liturgical festival culture, their processions surviving centuries of political disruption. The Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer church sheltered relics of the Three Marys, establishing a pilgrimage tradition that endures today.

1530 - 1798

The Council of Trent (1545–1563) systematically reshaped local ritual practice, overlaying Eucharistic processions and Baroque spectacle onto existing traditions. The Papal States governed most of Lazio, Umbria, and parts of Marche; their institutional records present a top-down view of ritual that may obscure popular and local initiative. In Rome, the Chiesa del Gesù (consecrated 1584) became the Jesuit mother church, a model of Counter-Reformation architecture designed to impress and convert. Pope Paul IV established the Jewish Ghetto on July 14, 1555, with the bull Cum Nimis Absurdum — confining Rome's ancient Jewish community (present since 161 BCE) behind walls and suppressing the public visibility of its distinct Minhag Italki ritual tradition. At Genzano di Roma, the infiorata — a flower-carpet devotion — is documented since 1778 as a Corpus Domini practice; whether the flower-carpet practice built on earlier seasonal flower traditions requires further local research, though the coincidence of the Corpus Christi date with peak flower season creates a natural calendar overlap. Spello's infiorate follow the same pattern. At Loreto, the Holy House sanctuary (basilica construction began 1468, façade completed 1586 under Sixtus V) became one of the Catholic world's major pilgrimage destinations, its Counter-Reformation intensification creating a ritual economy that reshaped the surrounding territory.

1377 - 1527

Renaissance Papal State formation began when Gregory XI returned from the Avignon exile (1377) and established the papal residence at the Vatican rather than the Lateran—decisively shifting the center of Catholic governance to this site. A succession of Renaissance popes rebuilt the Vatican as a palatial and artistic center: Sixtus IV built the Sistine Chapel (1473–1481, consecrated 1483), which hosted its first papal conclave in 1492; Julius II, elected in 1503, launched three transformative projects in 1506 alone—founding the Pontifical Swiss Guard, laying the first stone of the new St. Peter's Basilica (18 April 1506), and establishing the Vatican Museums with the display of the Laocoön group. Stand in the Sistine Chapel and look up at Michelangelo's ceiling (1508–1512): this room is simultaneously a papal liturgical space, an artistic monument, and the locked voting chamber where every modern pope has been elected.

1527 - 1870

Counter-Reformation institutional codification was forged in crisis. On 6 May 1527, Imperial troops sacked Rome; 147 of 189 Swiss Guards died defending Pope Clement VII, who escaped through the Passetto di Borgo to Castel Sant'Angelo. This event—the Sacco di Roma—became the permanent calendar anchor for the Swiss Guard's annual swearing-in ceremony, the most distinctly Vatican-specific festival in existence. The Council of Trent (1545–1563) and the Tridentine Missal of Pius V (1568–1570) codified the Roman Rite's liturgical calendar, fixing the feast-day rankings (Double, Semidouble, Simple) that governed Vatican celebrations for four centuries. Pope Pius V also built the Swiss Guard chapel of Santi Martino e Sebastiano degli Svizzeri (1568). Sixtus V moved the ancient obelisk from its original circus position to the center of St. Peter's Square (1586), physically recentering the pagan monument as a Christian focal point. The new St. Peter's Basilica was consecrated on 18 November 1626 by Urban VIII—the date still commemorated as the Feast of the Dedication of the Basilicas of Sts. Peter and Paul.

1870 - 1929

Italian Unification extinguished the Papal States. On 20 September 1870, Italian troops entered Rome through Porta Pia; Pope Pius IX refused to recognize the new status quo, declaring himself a 'prisoner of the Vatican.' For 59 years (1870–1929), no pope left the Apostolic Palace or set foot in St. Peter's Square. Urbi et Orbi blessings were given from an interior balcony rather than the external loggia; papal coronations moved from St. Peter's to the Sistine Chapel; the Vatican became a sealed space of liturgical continuity under political siege. This self-confinement reshaped how Vatican festivals were physically enacted: the same liturgical calendar continued, but the sovereign, public, outdoor dimension of papal celebration was suppressed. The stand-off ended only with the Lateran Treaty of 11 February 1929. Walk through the Apostolic Palace's state apartments and sense how these rooms, designed for diplomatic reception, became instead the entire world of a self-enclosed papacy.

1929 - 1962

The Lateran Settlement between the Holy See and Mussolini's Italy (signed 11 February 1929, effective 7 June 1929) created Vatican City as a sovereign microstate of 44 hectares, ending the Roman Question. The treaty guaranteed full and independent sovereignty to the Holy See; Italy paid 1,750 million lire in compensation for the lost Papal States. The Concordat initially established Catholicism as Italy's sole state religion (revised 1984). This new sovereignty gave the Vatican a legal personality in international law and physical infrastructure: the Vatican Railway Station (Città del Vaticano, built 1934 by Giuseppe Momo) connected the microstate to the Italian rail network per treaty Article 6; the Swiss Guard barracks were rebuilt within the new sovereign territory; the Vatican Gardens, covering half the state's area, became formalized sovereign green space. For the first time, Vatican festivals were celebrated by a recognized sovereign entity—liturgical traditions that vastly predated 1929 now had a modern legal shell.

1962 - 2021

Vatican II and its liturgical reform constitute the most decisive rupture in Vatican festival practice since the Tridentine codification. Sacrosanctum Concilium (4 December 1963) mandated reform of the liturgical year; Mysterii Paschalis (14 February 1969) promulgated the General Roman Calendar of 1969, suppressing Septuagesima and the Octave of Pentecost, removing approximately 200 saints from the universal calendar, and replacing the Double/Semidouble/Simple ranking with Solemnity/Feast/Memorial/Optional Memorial. The reform created a dual-calendar reality: the 1962 Extraordinary Form and the 1969 Ordinary Form now coexist in the same physical spaces at the Vatican, meaning a festival observed under one form may not exist under the other. Benedict XVI's Summorum Pontificum (2007) liberalized the Extraordinary Form; Francis's Traditionis Custodes (16 July 2021) restricted it. The Paul VI Audience Hall (Aula Paolo VI, built 1971 by Pier Luigi Nervi) became the primary indoor venue for general audiences and major liturgies, physically embodying the post-conciliar shift toward accessibility and scale. Stand in St. Peter's Basilica and realize: two liturgical calendars are potentially being celebrated here in the same space, by the same community, on different schedules.

From 2021

The contemporary Vatican is defined by the tension between liturgical continuity and reform, between the universal Church's global reach and this specific place's layered memory. Traditionis Custodes (16 July 2021) restricted the Extraordinary Form, intensifying the dual-calendar conflict that has shaped Vatican liturgical life since 1969. Pope Francis's death on 21 April 2025 and funeral in St. Peter's Square on 26 April 2025—attended by over 200,000 people—demonstrated the enduring power of this site as a ritual focal point for the global Church. Francis broke with centuries of papal burial tradition, choosing interment at Santa Maria Maggiore rather than the Vatican Grottoes. Pope Leo XIV, elected in the 2025 conclave, addressed the Swiss Guard at their May 6 ceremony in the Aula Paolo VI. Today you can experience the Vatican's layered festival life directly: stand in St. Peter's Square at the center of Christian pilgrimage where the ancient obelisk marks the spina of a pagan circus; attend a general audience in the Paul VI Hall; or, if you have special access, witness the Swiss Guard's May 6 oath ceremony in the San Damaso Courtyard—the single most Vatican-specific ritual still enacted annually, preserving 500 years of living memory.