Vatican Garden

The Vatican Gardens (Italian: Giardini Vaticani) in Vatican City are urban gardens and parkswhich cover more than half of the Vatican territory in the South and Northeast. There are some buildings such as Radio Vatican within the gardens.Tradition says that the site of the Vatican Gardens was spread with earth brought from Golgotha by Saint Helena to symbolically unite the blood of Christ with that shed by thousands of early Christians, who died in the persecutions of Nero.The gardens date back to medieval times when orchards and vineyards extended to the north of the Papal Apostolic Palace. 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.[ He planted an orchard (pomerium), a lawn (pratellum) and a garden (viridarium). 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 amongst vibrant flower beds and topiary, green lawns and a 3 hectares (7.4 acres) patch of forest. There are a variety of fountains spreading freshness over the gardens, while sculpture and artificial grottoes proclaim devotion to the Madonna, and an olive tree donated by the government of Israel, extends its three verdant branches.