The Vatican

Talk about big money…the Vatican is on some next level, old world, 1st century money. The way the tour guide explained it to me…before the separation of church and state in the Roman Empire, the Pope had all political, spiritual, economic, and military power. Then one day, there was a power struggle between the Pope and the Emperor (I don’t know who). They formed a truce and agreed that the Church could live autonomously in Rome and be the spiritual center of the world in what is known as the Vatican…free from political influence of the Roman Empire, and the Emperor would be ruler over the rest of the Roman Empire.

But after the fall of the Roman Empire, the church took a bulk of the precious stone, marble, gold, and jewels, from the buildings across Rome and re-purposed it to build up the Vatican and the church’s coffers. For example, the stone buildings in the Roman Forum and the Colosseum from the previous page were once all clad in marble. But after the collapse of the Roman Empire, the church took all the marble off the buildings. They especially liked taking the heads off marble statues because they were easiest to break off and take without getting caught.

Check out how they decked-out the Vatican.