he first thing which comes to mind when mentioning the Vatican Gardens is the land, on which they are laid – the home of the Catholic Church and certainly, a grandiose “museum” with two-thousand-year history, starting from the decline of the Empire, through the middle ages and back into the light of the Renaissance when St. Peter's Basilica was constructed. This is the land where early Christians were martyred and St. Peter was crucified. 

Nicholas V was the one who gave the idea of constructing gardens which would be used for both the papal court ceremonies and pope’s leisure activities. The land area was expanded and adjusted to include a pope’s residence. Of course, popes did not always live there, but due to the presence of Peter's grave, under what is today the main altar of the church, it has always been the most hallowed site. 

St. Peter’s grave has also been the cause of a 1500-years-old tradition which originated from early Christians’ beliefs that a pilgrimage to Peter's burial place would grant them special blessings. The journey required months of tough travel over the Alps and down into Italy and many of the exhausted pilgrims died while in Vatican City. For their holy burial, the German Cemetery was founded. Today, any Catholic from a Germanic nation of the Holy Roman Empire who dies in Rome has the right to be buried here. 

Some of the Vatican gardens contain features inherent of Renaissance landscape design, many of them being built in the Italian style of parterres. The greatest of these gardens is the 16th-century Labyrinth, a great rectangular expression of formal design set in boxwood and framed with Italian stone pines, (Pinus pinea) and cedars of Lebanon, (Cedrus libani). Other gardens display the best of Baroque. For example, higher on the hill is located the French garden, a beautiful formal parterre with Baroque fountains and arches of fragrant star jasmine, aligned to reflect the architecture of the dome beyond. It is interesting to note that all fountains (both in the gardens and the city) run with fresh and clean water which is safe to drink. 

The Vatican Gardens are definitely one of the most precious treasures the world enjoys. And perhaps what makes them a precious masterpiece, is not only the rare plants and outer beauty they contain. It is chiefly their fate of being born of faith on a hallowed land.