Vatican Hill
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The Vatican Hill (in Latin, Vaticanus Mons) is the name given, long before the founding of Christianity, to one of the hills on the side of the Tiber opposite the traditional seven hills of Rome. It may have been the site of an Etruscan town called Vaticum. The Vatican Hill is not one of the famous seven hills of Rome. In the 1st century A.D., the Vatican Hill featured a circus and a cemetery. St. Peter's Basilica is built over the cemetery, the traditional site of Saint Peter's grave.
After the Avignon Papacy it became the location of the headquarters of the Holy See and, since 1929, that of the State of the Vatican City. Before the Avignon Papacy, the headquarters of the Holy See was at the Lateran Palace.
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