Notices by OpenCage (opencage@en.osm.town)

On Thursday May 8th 2025, the famous Sistine Chapel blew white smoke once again, as the papacy of Leo XIV was announced to the world.

The selection of the first and only 🇺🇸 US-born Pope in history means there’s only one possible place for us to turn to for this week’s #geoweirdness thread: Vatican City 🇻🇦

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2/ Vatican City 🇻🇦, with an area of just 49 hectares and a population of under 1,000, is the world's smallest state.

The operating centre of the Catholic Church and governed by the Holy See, it gained independence in 1929 as part of the Lateran Treaty with Italy 🇮🇹. This treaty also instigated the use of only one of two square national flags, the other being Switzerland 🇨🇭

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lateran_Treaty

#geoweirdness

3/ It wouldn't be #geoweirdness without a border dispute.

The eagle-eyed amongst you who studied the gray-coloured map of the Vatican 🇻🇦 in toot 2 will have noticed a small red line, referring to a disputed section of the Vatican known as the “Ricciolo d’Italia” (The Curl of Italy 🇮🇹), also a relic of the Lateran Treaty.

This disputed zone has a width of just 3 meters and is 60 meters long.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricciolo_d'Italia

4/ The curiosities of this treaty and it’s impact on the 🇻🇦 Vatican’s borders, enclaves and other fun geofacts are expertly outlined in this short photo-essay, absolutely essential reading.

https://barrysborderpoints.com/enclaves-and-exclaves/vatican-2/

As well as covering The Curl (getting down to the nitty gritty of paving stone angles), there are cool mentions of various elements of statehood such as the City borders, the fire brigade and perhaps more interestingly ...

#geoweirdness

5/ Extraterritorial properties!

There are a number of properties outside the main borders of the Vatican City 🇻🇦 that are governed by the Holy See.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Properties_of_the_Holy_See

Below we have another expertly written article outlining the annexes of the Vatican, focusing on these buildings.

https://bigthink.com/strange-maps/601-bigger-than-you-think-the-vatican-and-its-annexes/

Below is a map of Papal buildings around the Lago di Albano, Italy 🇮🇹

#geoweirdness

6/ The Vatican 🇻🇦certainly packs a geopunch above its weight!

It is one of just four micro-states outside the EU 🇪🇺 that mints its own Euro coins.

The other three are San Marino 🇸🇲, Andorra 🇦🇩, and Monaco 🇲🇨

Kosovo 🇽🇰 and Montenegro 🇲🇪 are also non-EU countries that use the Euro - but without any agreement with the EU, and they do not produce their own coins.

#geoweirdness

7/ Given the size of the Vatican City 🇻🇦, the 88 countries that have diplomatic missions with the Holy See have their embassies not in their city-state, but in the surrounding streets of Rome, Italy 🇮🇹.

It’s only one of two sovereign states to have no resident embassies, the other being Liechtenstein 🇱🇮, and also leads to the fun situation where the Italian embassy to the Vatican is within Italian borders! Very geoweird.

#geoweirdness

8/ Another interesting diplomatic-related #geoweirdness fact is that there are two passports associated with the Vatican 🇻🇦

Vatican City State issued passports for citizens, and any diplomatic and political passports issued by the Holy See.

The Holy See passports can be issued to non-citizens who are in service to the Holy See, and can be published in Latin!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vatican_City_and_Holy_See_passports

9/ Of the roughly 400 individuals who hold a Vatican City 🇻🇦 passport and therefore citizenship, close to 135 of them belong to the Pontifical Swiss Guard.

This is the small force of elite soldiers responsible for the Pope's safety. Selection requires unmarried Swiss 🇨🇭Catholic males, 19-30 years old, at least 5'8.5" tall, with Swiss military training and a professional diploma.

Not a huge pool to select from!

#geoweirdness

10/ You may be surprised to learn that the Vatican 🇻🇦 has a railway, the shortest railway system in the world. It is mainly used for freight, but there is one passanger service per week. In total there are 300m of track.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vatican_Railway

#geoweirdness

11/ Italian is the working language of Vatican City 🇻🇦 however the official language of the Holy See is Latin (and the Swiss Guard work in Swiss German).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_Vatican_City

The Vatican is the site of the world's only Latin ATM
https://www.grunge.com/614822/the-vatican-is-home-to-this-one-of-a-kind-atm/

#geoweirdness

2/ There are several main reasons why places may have several names:

a. different names in different languages (ex: Munich / München)

b. Name changes due to changing borders (bye, bye Czechoslovakia)

c. Name changes for political reasons ( Bombay / Mumbai)

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-south-asia-12099596

#geoweirdness

3/ Let's dive into some examples

Many parts of the world are multi-lingual.

For example the mountainous South Tyrol region of Italy 🇮🇹, close to Austria 🇦🇹. Much of the population speaks German, and calls the area Südtirol. In Italian it is the Alto Adige. Pretty much every town, village, and even street in the region has both a German and Italian name.

Similar situations exist in other multi-lingual regions

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Tyrol

#geoweirdness

4/ Sometimes borders shift. Kaliningrad (Калинингра́д) is a Russian 🇷🇺 semi-exclave on the Baltic coast between Poland 🇵🇱 and Lithuania 🇱🇹.
Originally an old Prussian settlement, in the 13th century it was invaded by the Teutonic Knights and renamed Königsberg after King Ottokar II.

After WW2 it was transferred to Soviet control and renamed Kaliningrad, after Soviet leader, Mikhail Kalinin. Later it and became part of Russia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaliningrad
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%B6nigsberg

#geoweirdness

5/ Sometimes language changes. A famous example is Beijing 🇨🇳, known in Chinese as 北京 (North, Capital).

For much of recent history, dating back to early interactions with the West, it was known as Peking.

In 1958, China moved away from its ties with the west and adopted the Pinyin writing system, replacing the Wade-Giles romanized transliteration. This marked the end of Peking and the beginning of Beijing!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beijing

https://ruqintravel.com/china-destination-guides/beijing-and-peking/

#geoweirdness

6/ Many, many naming disputes are political in nature.

A famous example in the English speaking world: Depending on political persuasions the Northern Irish city is known as either “Londonderry” or “Derry”.

It’s complex, and well worth a read up on:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derry/Londonderry_name_dispute

#geoweirdness

Let's close out the week with a #geoweirdness thread about a topic that we endlessly battle with: places with multiple names.

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This week on #geoweirdness we are back to Europe 🇪🇺.

Let's visit the geographic peculiarities of Austria 🇦🇹

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We originally had a different topic planned for this week's #geoweirdness thread, but the global discussion has turned to Greenland 🇬🇱, so let's go with it.

Join us as we consider the geographic oddities of the world's northernmost territory.

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@vkc @underdarkGIS Slow is steady. Steady is fast.