The Popes - Treasures of the World - by Christopher Hibbert

The popes have lived in Rome since the first century except for a sixty-eight-year interval in the four­teenth century, which they spent in Avignon, France. The map in the front shows the main thor­oughfares of modern Rome and the locations of important churches, residences, and other buildings associated with twenty centuries of papal history. The inset map shows in greater detail part of Vatican City, where popes have lived since the year 500, though not continuously. During the Middle Ages, forexample, pontiffs resided across the Tiber at the Lateran Palace. Vatican City is a sovereign nation—at 109 acres, the smallest in the world—established in 1929 by a treaty between the Church and Italy.