The Holy See and Vatican City, two different things with one pope

When we talk about the Vatican we usually blur two things that aren’t the same. One is the Holy See, the government of the Catholic Church. The other is Vatican City State, the 0.44 km² territory beside the Tiber. They share a head and get used as synonyms, but they don’t do the same jobs. Here it is with examples a traveller will actually come across.

Who’s in charge, and where

The shortest way to say it is this. The Holy See is who, and the Vatican is where. The Holy See is the sovereign organ of the Catholic Church, with the pope at its head, and it existed for centuries before there was a state. Vatican City State was created by the Lateran Pacts of 1929 to give the Holy See a territory of its own, tiny but its own, guaranteeing its independence.

The Governorate’s website puts it plainly. Both the Holy See and the state have their own recognised international legal personality, and the pope heads both. Representing the state abroad, diplomatic relations and treaties are exercised by the pope through the Secretariat of State. How that division came about is in my guide to Vatican history.

Who do countries send ambassadors to?

The Holy See. According to the Press Office note of 9 January 2026, 184 states have diplomatic relations with it, plus the European Union and the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. Since embassies won’t fit into 0.44 km², 93 of those missions are based in Rome, on Italian soil.

The United Nations works the same way. The one in the room is the Holy See, a Permanent Observer since 6 April 1964. It doesn’t vote, and its rights of participation were set by the General Assembly in resolution 58/314 of 1 July 2004. The Holy See is also an observer at UNESCO and the FAO and a member of the IAEA and UN Tourism.

So what does the state do?

It runs the territory and its services. It’s Vatican City State, not the Holy See, that belongs to the Universal Postal Union, the International Telecommunication Union and the World Intellectual Property Organization. That’s why Vatican stamps and post are the state’s business.

It’s also the state that signed the 2009 pact with the European Union allowing it the euro and a limited coinage, despite not being in the EU. I go into it on money and payments in the Vatican.

Passports, where the two overlap

This is where they cross over. Diplomatic and service passports come from the Holy See; the ordinary electronic one comes from the state and only its citizens get it. They share one international code, VAT. None of this affects you as a visitor, because there are no passport checks to enter the square, the basilica or the Museums. What you should carry is covered on the page about passports and the Vatican.

Holy See property that isn’t the Vatican

This is the bit that confuses travellers most. Under the Lateran Treaty the Holy See owns Rome’s three other great papal basilicas and the palace at Castel Gandolfo, among other buildings. They enjoy immunities, but they’re in Italy and aren’t state territory. The same goes for many Holy See offices in buildings on Via della Conciliazione, Piazza Pio XII or Piazza di Spagna, the so-called extraterritorial zones.

So when you visit Castel Gandolfo, you’re on Holy See property but you haven’t left Italy. And that’s why Pope Francis’s tomb, in Santa Maria Maggiore, isn’t in the Vatican even though it’s in a papal basilica.

What it means for your trip

For sightseeing, the distinction changes nothing practical. But understanding it saves confusion. If you’re after an embassy, it’s in Rome. If you walk into a papal basilica in the city centre, you haven’t crossed a border. And if someone tells you the Vatican sits at the UN, you can politely point out that it’s the Holy See. For the country’s other vital statistics, population, size and government, see my page on whether the Vatican is a country.