Holy mysteries

There are no hospitals or prisons in the Vatican: Here's why

Image: Jamie Evawin

Located in the heart of Rome, the Vatican is a city-state with roots that stretch far beyond its official founding year. And while you might think you’ve heard all about it, the world’s smallest country still holds plenty of secrets. Let’s uncover 10 fascinating facts hidden within its walls.

Image: NASA

In July 1969, the United States sent the first humans who reached the moon. But what exactly did the astronauts bring along with them? Believe it or not, a small Vatican City flag flew aboard Apollo 11 and made it all the way to the moon. Later, President Nixon presented that same flag to Pope Paul VI.

Image: Kelsey Knight

Wine in the Vatican isn’t just for Mass. In fact, this tiny city-state has the world’s highest wine consumption per capita! That may sound shocking, but it becomes a little more reasonable when you consider two things: there are no children in the population, so almost everyone is of drinking age, and residents also enjoy tax-free wine.

Image: Luma Pimentel

Did you know there are no hospitals and no delivery rooms at all? That’s right! You can’t become a Vatican citizen by birth. Citizenship is granted only based on a person’s role or employment within the Holy See.

Image: Ivan Lemekhov

You can’t just choose to live in the Vatican. Just as citizenship isn’t granted by birth, it isn’t permanent either. Those who become citizens hold it only temporarily, and it’s revoked once their service ends.

Image: Sebastian Herrmann

Due to the large number of daily visitors, minor crimes like pickpocketing can occur. However, the Vatican doesn’t have a formal prison system. While there are a few temporary detention facilities, anyone sentenced to prison serves their time in Italian jails.

Image: chan lee

It turns out no one has pets inside the Vatican walls, and it’s not because they don’t like animals. There is actually a rule that prohibits pets from living in or visiting the Vatican and its main attractions. While this might sound strange at first, it actually makes a lot of sense: the ban exists because the Vatican functions primarily as a high-security workplace and religious site, where noise, dirt, or pet waste wouldn’t be ideal. Of course, there are exceptions, such as guide dogs or therapy animals.

Image: Richard Wang

The Vatican is filled with incredible works by the master Michelangelo, with the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel being among the most famous. But there’s only one piece actually signed by Michelangelo himself, and it’s right here in the Vatican. More precisely, it’s in St. Peter’s Basilica: the breathtaking sculpture titled "The Pietà," completed when he was just about 24 years old.

Image: Nicolas Hoizey

The Vatican Museums are the public museums of Vatican City, housing around 70,000 works of art! Together, their corridors and halls stretch nearly 10 miles and attract over 15 million visitors each year. In addition, you can explore the incredible Bramante Staircase, with a double-helix design that is mind-blowing.

Image: Elena Mozhvilo

With so many rooms and corridors, there are also countless doors, which means countless keys. Around 2,700, to be more precise. That’s right: each morning, the museum guards are responsible for opening every single one.

Image: Erik Mclean

Lingua Latina pars fundamentalis Vaticani est. But if that sentence didn’t make sense to you, you might want to bring cash when visiting the Vatican. Why? Well, their ATMs are in Latin! The good news: Italian and English are also available, so we’re covered.

12 ways to invent a name

Do you prefer "Sherlock" or "Sherringford"? Behind 12 fictional names

Image: MJ S

Did you know that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was torn between naming his famous detective "Sherringford" or "Sherlock"? Or that James Bond was actually named after an American ornithologist? We repeat names like "Moby Dick" or "Harry Potter" with such ease that we forget some writer, at some point, sat down and scribbled out a list of possibilities.

Let’s explore the stories behind the naming of 12 beloved characters!

Image: Quang Viet Nguyen

If "James" sounds like a bland name for a top-notch spy, and "Bond" is a surname you’d probably forget after a first introduction, then Ian Fleming knew exactly what he was doing.

The point of the character’s name was to be unremarkable—even boring. A suave spy trying to blend in with his surroundings couldn’t very well walk around with a name like Sherlock or Indiana.

But Fleming didn’t invent the name: he borrowed it from a book about birds, written by American ornithologist James Bond.

Image: Jacques LE HENAFF

The solemn hero of To Kill a Mockingbird was meant to be linked with wisdom and justice. Harper Lee chose the name, which means "from Attica," for its association with Greek and Roman philosophers. It was a name that evoked rationality and moral clarity.

She countered it with "Finch," soft and grounded—and another bird. The contrast in those names perfectly suits the man who defended Tom Robinson in court and read to his children by lamplight.

Interestingly, Atticus was based in part on Lee’s father, Amasa Coleman Lee, a lawyer who once defended two Black men accused of murder.

Image: Erik Mclean

What about Homer Simpson? He was also based on the creator’s dad—as were Marge, Lisa, and Maggie. They were all named after Matt Groening’s own family. When deciding names for his cartoon dysfunctional family, Groening had the funny idea of borrowing his relatives’ names.

He intentionally left himself out of it: for his role as the devilish only son in the family, he changed "Matt" to "Bart" (an anagram of "brat").

Image: Lucas Medeiros

Sherringford Hope was the name Sir Arthur Conan Doyle first gave his detective. The character was clear in his mind, but he took his time coming up with the defining name.

"Holmes" was an English name associated with London in many people’s minds, partly because of the popular book Holmes’s Great Metropolis. And "Sherlock" happened to be the surname of two inspectors solving crimes in England at the time, so Doyle likely picked it from the newspapers on purpose.

Image: Ale Matei

J.M. Barrie’s "boy who wouldn’t grow up" had a carefully crafted name, too. Barrie had a close relationship with Sylvia Llewelyn Davies and her five sons, whom he entertained with imaginative stories about pirates and treasure.

He borrowed the name "Peter" from one of them, though the adventurous boy’s character was modeled after all of them. Meanwhile, "Pan" is the name of the Greek god of the wild who played pipes and lived outside the rules of civilization—just like the boy.

Image: Yuanpei Hua

Even years after the Harry Potter books became a cultural phenomenon, many people struggled to pronounce the name of the female sidekick, Hermione. J.K. Rowling didn’t clarify its pronunciation until the fourth book!

But she didn’t invent the name. In Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale, Queen Hermione is noble and wrongly accused, making this a subtle nod to the misunderstood girl power of the character.

Side note: "Harry" came from Rowling’s childhood crush on the name, and "Potter" was the surname of neighbors she liked as a kid.

Image: Frankie Lu

Victor Hugo wanted the name of the ex-convict at the heart of Les Misérables to carry a sense of ordinariness. He was meant to represent the everyman—hence "Jean" (the French equivalent of "John").

The surname "Valjean" implies that the name "Jean" had been carried in his family for generations—basically, as unremarkable as a name can get. Hugo once noted that Les Misérables was not about exceptional people, but about dignity in the lowest places.

Image: svklimkin

The name of the white whale that haunted Captain Ahab’s dreams was borrowed from a real whale, with just a slight name tweak.

Mocha Dick was a real-life albino sperm whale known to 19th-century whalers. It earned a reputation for fighting back when attacked. The name came from the island of Mocha, southeast of Chile, near which it lived. It was first documented in an 1839 account by explorer Jeremiah Reynolds, whose tale Melville likely read.

Image: Bruno Guerrero

During the making of Tim Burton’s iconic Beetlejuice (1988), a studio executive wanted to call the movie "Scared Sheetless." Fortunately, they went with Beetlejuice, a playful twist on Betelgeuse, a red supergiant star in the Orion constellation.

The movie needed a name that sounded grand and imposing in its original form (Betelgeuse), but cheeky, silly, and very Burton-esque on the movie poster.

Image: Sam McGhee

Truman Burbank, the hero of The Truman Show, was always meant to be two things at once: an ordinary man and a massive metaphor. His first name is a not-so-subtle play on "True Man." Burbank may reference the California city, known for its ties to media and television production, adding a subtle layer to the metaphor.

It was the perfect label for a man who is the only authentic soul in a world built entirely on lies.

Image: Tommy van Kessel

George Lucas wanted the Dark Lord’s name to carry symbolic weight, and it does: "Darth" was meant to signal rank, like a title (later extended to Darth Maul, Darth Sidious, etc.), but it also evokes "death."

The funny thing is that, even though "Vader" resembles the Dutch and German words for "father," it wasn’t originally planned by the creators to associate Darth Vader with, well… having a son. That storyline was only introduced in the sequel, The Empire Strikes Back.

Image: Irene Strong

Cosmo Kramer, Seinfeld’s sliding-door wild card, was based on a real person: Kenny Kramer, a neighbor of co-creator Larry David. Kenny was quirky, opinionated, and eccentric enough to inspire one of TV’s most memorable sitcom characters.

David initially didn’t want to use the name "Kramer," fearing the real one would demand money or publicity (which, in hindsight, would have been perfectly in character). But "Kramer" just sounded right—and eventually, the real Kenny appreciated the nod.