Vatican Hill
Since long before the founding of
Christianity, one of the hills on the side of the
Tiber opposite the traditional
seven hills of Rome has been called the
Vatican Hill (in
Latin,
Vaticanus Mons). It may have been the site of an
Etruscan town called
Vaticum.
It has for some centuries been the locus of the headquarters of the Holy See and, since 1929, that of the State of the Vatican City.