Hello,
a few years ago I visited the Camposanto Teutonico and attended mass there.
Everything there is "German", i.e. signs, missals, etc.
It is however not the seat of the German ambassador to the Holy See, but
belongs to some kind of German foundation, whose head interestingly enough
is the Austrian president. As far as I remember it is cared for by the
Teutonic Order, one of the last chivalric orders of the Catholic Church,
similar to the Order of Malta.
Its seat is in Vienna, they have a homepage, see
http://www.dtorden.or.at/
I found an article in German about the cemetary, where it says that since
the Lateran treaty, the status of this small piece of land is
"extraterritorial", "not part of the Vatican" and "similar to an embassy".
Apparently, during the second world war Jews and enemies of the Mussolini
regime were able to stay there unharmed due to this special status.
The page I found has several interesting articles about other "national"
cemetaries in foreign countries, see:
http://www.ohlsdorf-online.de/ohl-72/ohl-72.html#campo
By the way, some countries have special ambassadors accredited to the Holy
See, separate from the regular embassy to Italy. An example is Austria,
where the ambassador is accredited to the Holy See, the Order of Malta and
San Marino, see:
http://www.bmaa.gv.at/botschaften/mission-info/bmaaMission.cgi?mode=oeinausland&command=content&country=Heiliger
Stuhl
Hope I could help,
greetings,
Anton Z
>From: "lnadybal" <lnadybal@...>
>Reply-To: BoundaryPoint@yahoogroups.com
>To: BoundaryPoint@yahoogroups.com
>Subject: [BoundaryPoint] German Exclave in the Vatican
>Date: Sun, 24 Feb 2002 23:24:02 -0000
>
>I just posted a photo from a 1972 article I've saved for years that
>pictures the Camp Santo Teutonico which is surrounded by the building
>that houses the Teutonic College, just to the west of St. Peters.
>I've tried for years to learn how this came to be and to learn what
>German official administers it.
>
>Does anyone have any insight?
>
>Is the whole building that surrounds the cemetary extraterritorial, or
>just the cemetary within the walls?
>
>The existence of this piece of land with this status begs the question
>as to whether the barracks of the Swiss guards have any
>extraterritorial status we never hear about? Are there any other
>extraterritorial or diplomatic enclaves in the Vatican proper, or are
>all countries that have relations with the Holy See represented by
>ambassadors who are housed outside the Vatican at ther missions to
>Italy?
>
>I know that during WWII there were diplomats who were "trapped" in the
>Vatican, in some cases for years, but I don't think their presence
>there made the ground they stood on or the rooms in which they
>performed their official magic at any given time, into little mobile
>extraterritorial pieces of wherever it was that they had come from.
>But even though I don't think that, it could have been. No?
>
>
>
>
>Regards
>
>Len Nadybal
>
>
>Len Nadybal
>
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