Historic Centre of Rome, the Properties of the Holy See in that
City Enjoying Extraterritorial Rights and San Paolo Fuori le
Mura Founded, according to legend, by Romulus and Remus in 753
BC, Rome was first the centre of the Roman Republic, then of the
Roman Empire, and it became the capital of the Christian world
in the 4th century. The World Heritage site, extended in 1990 to
the walls of Urban VIII, includes some of the major monuments of
antiquity such as the Forums, the Mausoleum of Augustus, the
Mausoleum of Hadrian, the Pantheon, Trajan’s Column and the
Column of Marcus Aurelius, as well as the religious and public
buildings of papal Rome. The extraterritorial properties of the
Holy See that make up this World Heritage site comprise a series
of unique artistic achievements - Santa Maria Maggiore, St John
Lateran and St Paul Outside the Walls. These properties exerted
considerable influence on the development of architecture and
monumental arts throughout the centuries in a large part of the
Christian w