Papal States

State of the Church
*Stato della Chiesa*
*Status Ecclesiasticus*
State of the Church Stato della Chiesa; Status Ecclesiasticus
754–1870; Interregna (1798–1799, 1809–1814 and 1849)
	Anthem:
	The Papal States in 1815 after the Napoleonic Wars
	Map of the Papal States (green) in 1700, including its exclaves of Benevento and Pontecorvo in Southern Italy, and the Comtat Venaissin and Avignon in Southern France.
Capital	Rome
Common languages	Latin, Italian, Occitan
Religion	Roman Catholic
Government	Theocratic absolute elective monarchy
Pope
• 754–757	Stephen II (first)
• 1846–1870	Pius IX (last)
Cardinal Secretary of State
• 1551–1555	Girolamo Dandini (first)
• 1848–1870	Giacomo Antonelli (last)
Prime Minister
• 1848	Gabriele Ferretti (first)
• 1848	Giuseppe Galletti (last)
History
•	754
• Codification	781
• Treaty of Venice (independence from the Holy Roman Empire)	1177
• 1st disestablishment	February 15, 1798
• Schönbrunn Palace Declarations	May 17, 1809
•	September 20, 1870
• Vatican City	February 11, 1929
Population
• 1853	3,124,668
Currency	Papal States scudo (until 1866); Papal States lira (1866–1870);
Preceded by	Succeeded by
	Byzantine Empire
	Roman Republic (18th century)
	First French Empire
	Roman Republic (19th century)
Roman Republic (18th century)
First French Empire
Roman Republic (19th century)
Kingdom of Italy
Prisoner in the Vatican
Today part of	France; Italy; Vatican City;

The Papal States, officially the State of the Church (Italian: Stato della Chiesa, Italian pronunciation: [ˈstato della ˈkjɛːza]; Latin: Status Ecclesiasticus;^[2] also Dicio Pontificia), were a series of territories in the Italian Peninsula under the direct sovereign rule of the Pope, from the 8th century until 1870.

By 1861, much of the Papal States' territory had been conquered by the Kingdom of Italy. In 1870, the Pope lost Lazio and Rome and had no physical territory at all, except the Vatican.