The Papal States

The Papal States, officially the State of the Church (Italian: Stato della Chiesa), were the territories in the Italian peninsula under the direct authority of the pope from 756 to 1870. At their greatest extent, they covered the modern Italian regions of Lazio , The Marches, Umbria and Emilia-Romagna. In 1861, the Papal States were reduced to Lazio and became an enclave of the Kingdom of Sardinia, which was proclaimed the new Kingdom of Italy. Between 1870 and 1929, the pope had no physical territory and the Vatican was under Italian sovereignty. Pope Pius XI and Benito Mussolini finally resolved the crisis and created the Vatican City State, which was awarded 44 hectares of the city of Rome, in the area of the historic papal buildings, on Vatican Hill.

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