Gardens of Vatican City

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You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in German. (October 2016) Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the German article. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing German Wikipedia article at [[:de:Vatikanische Gärten]]; see its history for attribution. You may also add the template {{Translated|de|Vatikanische Gärten}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Gardens of Vatican City
The Vatican Gardens
Type	Botanical
Location	Vatican City
Coordinates	41°54.2′N 12°27.2′E / 41.9033°N 12.4533°E / 41.9033; 12.4533
Area	23 hectares (57 acres)
Owned by	The Pope as Bishop of Rome
Status	Active

The Gardens of Vatican City (Latin: Horti Civitatis Vaticanae), also informally known as the Vatican Gardens (Italian: Giardini Vaticani) in Vatican City, are private urban gardens and parks which cover more than half of the country, located in the west of the territory and owned by the Pope. There are some buildings, such as Vatican Radio and the Governor's Palace, within the gardens.

The gardens cover approximately 23 hectares (57 acres), about half of the city. The highest point is 60 metres (197 ft) above mean sea level. Stone walls bound the area in the North, South, and West. The gardens and parks were established during the Renaissance and Baroque era and are decorated with fountains and sculptures.

Pope Francis opened the Vatican Gardens to the public in 2014.^[1] Individuals and pre-formed groups, considered to consist of sixteen or more people, may visit the Gardens with the presence of a tour guide.^[2] The gardens also enshrine eighteen Marian images venerated worldwide at the designation of the Pope, who is the owner of the gardens.

Pious tradition claim that the foundation site of the Vatican Gardens was spread with sacred soil brought from Mount Calvary by Empress Saint Helena^[3][4] to symbolically unite the blood of Jesus Christ with that shed by thousands of early Christians, who died in the persecutions of Emperor Nero Caesar Augustus.^[3]

The gardens date back to medieval times when orchards and vineyards extended to the north of the Papal Apostolic Palace.^[5] In 1279, Pope Nicholas III (Giovanni Gaetano Orsini, 1277–1280) moved his residence back to the Vatican from the Lateran Palace and enclosed this area with walls.^[6] He planted an orchard (pomerium), a lawn (pratellum), and a garden (viridarium).^[6] Firstly, they appeared near the hills of Sant'Egidio where today the Palazzetto del Belvedere and the Courtyards of the Vatican Museums are located.

The site received a major re-landscaping at the beginning of the 16th century,^[5] during the pontificate of Pope Julius II.^[7] Donato Bramante's original design was then split into three new courtyards,^[7] the Cortili del Belvedere, the "della Biblioteca" and the "della Pigna" (or Pine Cone)^[5][7] in the Renaissance landscape design style.^[8] Also in Renaissance style, a great rectangular Labyrinth, formal in design, set in boxwood and framed with Italian stone pines, (Pinus pinea) and cedars of Lebanon, (Cedrus libani).^[3] In place of Nicholas III's enclosure, Bramante built a great rectilinear defensive wall.^[7]

In 1921 a fire broke out inside the sanctuary of the Basilica of Loreto and destroyed a statue of the Virgin Mary, known as Our Lady of Loreto. The statue was commissioned by Pope Pius XI in 1922. It was carved from cedars of Lebanon from the Vatican Gardens. The sculpture, designed by Enrico Quattrini and painted by Leopoldo Celani, is still one of the most venerated today in the Basilica of Loreto, in the Marche region.

Since the end of 2014, the Vatican Museums and the Directorate of Technical Services of the Governorate of Vatican City State have been running the project of restoration and conservation^[9] of various stone artifacts in the gardens. The goal of the project has been to prevent the deterioration of the objects of art-historical interest.

In October 2017 the professionals involved in the restoration conducted a study to consider, from a scientific point of view, modern methods and eco-sustainable techniques in application to the conservation of the artifacts over time. After a careful study, they opted for non-toxic and environmentally friendly products, such as oregano (Origanum vulgare) and thyme (Thymus vulgaris), along with other plant protection products used individually or combined.^[10]

Today's Vatican Gardens are spread over nearly 23 hectares (57 acres), they contain a variety of medieval fortifications, buildings and monuments from the 9th century to the present day, set among vibrant flower beds and topiary, green lawns and a 3 hectares (7 acres) patch of forest. There are a variety of fountains cooling the gardens, sculptures, an artificial grotto devoted to Our Lady of Lourdes, and an Olive tree donated by the government of Israel.^[11]

Both the Vatican and Castel Gandalfo gardens became open to the general public in 2014.^[12]

In 2019, Rafael Tornini, head of the Garden and Environment Service of the Vatican, announced the gardens had been transitioning to organic lawn management since 2017.^[13]

Pope Pius XI designated Saint Therese of Lisieux The Little Flower as the official Patroness of the gardens on 17 May 1927, according to her the title as "Sacred Keeper of the Gardens" and within the same year, a small chapel dedicated to her was built within the gardens near the Leonine walls.

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The following are venerated images of the Blessed Virgin Mary enshrined at the Vatican Gardens:

18 Marian images permanently enshrined in the Gardens of Vatican City

Image within the Gardens	Place of Devotion	Nation	Year of Devotion	Date of Installation	Feast Day
	Lourdes, France		1858	1 June 1902	February 11
	Monte Figogna		1490	2 May 1917	August 29
	Tepeyac, Mexico		1531	14 October 1939	December 12
Our Lady of Fátima	Fátima, Portugal		1917	29 May 1983	13 May
The Madonna of Schoenstatt	Vallendar, Germany		1914	1992	October 18
The Black Madonna of Częstochowa	Jasna Góra, Poland		1382	1994	August 26
The Virgin of Mercy	Savona		1536	10 May 1995	March 18
Our Lady of Divine Love	Via Ardeatina		1740	10 May 1999	Monday of Pentecost
Our Lady of Sacred Heart of Taggia	Rome		1855	21 March 2006	March 11
Our Lady of Good Counsel	Genazzano, Italy		1467	11 July 2009	April 26
Virgin of Suyapa	Honduras		1747	20 September 2013	February 3
Nuestra Senora de La Antigua	Panama		1513	26 October 2013	September 9
Our Lady of Charity	Cuba		1612	28 August 2014	September 8
Our Lady of Penafrancia	Philippines		1434	3 December 2015	3rd Saturday in September
Our Lady of Aparecida	Brazil		1717	3 September 2016	October 12
Virgen de Copacabana	Bolivia		1583	25 September 2017	February 2 August 5
Virgin of Presentation of El Quinche	Ecuador		1580	17 May 2019	February 2
Our Lady of the Rosary of Chiquinquirá	Colombia		1560	9 July 2021	February 2

• 
  Part of the Vatican Gardens
• 
  The Fountain of the Eagle "Fontana dell'Aquilone" in the Vatican Gardens
• 
  Armenian cross monument (Khatchkar) inside the Vatican Gardens
• 
  Vatican Gardens
• 
  Palace of the Governorate of Vatican City State
• 
  Vatican Gardens

• Vatican Climate Forest
• Index of Vatican City-related articles

• Nichols, Fiona (August 1, 2006). Rome and the Vatican. New Holland Publishers. pp. 85–. ISBN 978-1-84537-500-3. Retrieved March 4, 2010.^{[permanent dead link‍]}
• Ricci, Corrado. "Vatican: Its History Its Treasures" Contributor Ernesto Begni. copyright 2003 Published by Kessinger Publishing, ISBN 0-7661-3941-7, ISBN 978-0-7661-3941-1
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Vatican City Gardens". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.

The initial version is based upon the article it:Giardini Vaticani of the Italian language edition of Wikipedia. Data concerning the measures of lengths were taken from the article de:Vatikanische Gärten of the German language edition of Wikipedia.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Giardini Vaticani.

• Official website
• The Vatican: spirit and art of Christian Rome, a book from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on the gardens (pp. 155–164)

41°54′11″N 12°27′2″E / 41.90306°N 12.45056°E / 41.90306; 12.45056