Apostolic Palace

The Apostolic Palace is the official residence of the Pope, which is located in Vatican City. It is also known as the Sacred Palace, the Papal Palace and the Palace of the Vatican. The Vatican itself refers to the building as the Palace of Sixtus V in honor of Pope Sixtus V.

The Papal Apartments is the non-official designation for the collection of apartments, both private and state, that wrap around a courtyard (the Courtyard of Sixtus V, Cortile de Sisto V) on two sides of the third floor (the top floor) of the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican City in Rome. Since the 17th century the Papal Apartments have been the official residence of the Pope in his religious capacity (as Supreme Pontiff). Prior to 1870, the Pope's official residence in his temporal capacity (as sovereign of the Papal States) was the Quirinal Palace, which is now the official residence of the President of the Italian Republic. The Papal Apartments are referred to in Italian by several terms, including appartamento nobile and appartamento pontificio.

The apartments include about ten large rooms including a vestibule, a small studio office for the papal secretary, the pope's private study, the pope's bedroom in the corner of the building, a medical suite (which includes dental equipment and equipment for emergency surgery), a dining room, a small living room, and the kitchen. There is a roof garden and staff quarters for the nuns (German Benedictines) who run the Prefecture of the Pontifical Household (Papal Household). It is from the window of his small study that the pope greets and blesses pilgrims to Saint Peter's Square on Sundays. The private library has been described as a "vast room with two windows overlooking Saint Peter's Square." The pope's private chapel has a piece of art, by I.H. Rosen and commissioned by Pope Pius XI that depicts "two episodes of Polish resistance (against the Tatars and against the Bolsheviks) framing the face of the Black Madonna of Częstochowa."

Vatican City ⁱ/ˈvætɨkən ˈsɪti/, or Vatican City State, in Italian officially Stato della Città del Vaticano (pronounced [ˈstaːto della t͡ʃitˈta del vatiˈkaːno]), is a landlocked sovereign city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome, Italy. It has an area of approximately 44 hectares (110 acres), and a population of just over 800. This makes Vatican City the smallest independent state in the world by both area and population.