Q 01/05

On the bank of which river does Vatican City sit, as an enclave inside the Italian capital?

A) The Tiber

B) The Po

C) The Adige

D) The Arno

Answer · why

A) The Tiber

The Tiber. Vatican City lies on its west bank, and its walls stop at St Peter's Square, where only a white line on the paving separates the state from...

Q 02/05

Which 1929 agreement between the Holy See and Italy created the modern state of Vatican City?

A) The Law of Guarantees

B) The Concordat of Worms

C) The Lateran Treaty

D) The Treaty of Rome

Answer · why

C) The Lateran Treaty

The Lateran Treaty, signed by Mussolini and the pope's secretary of state, ended a standoff of nearly 60 years in which the popes refused to recognise...

Q 03/05

Vatican City is the world's smallest country; which country is the second smallest?

A) San Marino

B) Monaco

C) Liechtenstein

D) Nauru

Answer · why

B) Monaco

Monaco, at about two square km, is still more than four times bigger than Vatican City, which is so small that nearly everything it uses, water and po...

Q 04/05

Which painter frescoed the papal apartments in the Vatican that include The School of Athens?

A) Pinturicchio

B) Perugino

C) Fra Angelico

D) Raphael

Answer · why

D) Raphael

Raphael began the rooms in his mid-twenties as the pope's private apartments and was still at work on them when he died in 1520, leaving his assistant...

Q 05/05

What kind of state is Vatican City politically?

A) A parliamentary republic

B) An absolute elective monarchy

C) A constitutional monarchy

D) A theocratic federation

Answer · why

B) An absolute elective monarchy

An absolute elective monarchy: the pope holds all legislative, executive and judicial power and nobody inherits it, yet he leaves the daily running of...