Palace of the Holy Office



The Palace of the Holy Office is a building in Vatican City which houses the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Built in the 1920s, the palace is situated south of St Peter's Basilica near the Petriano Entrance to Vatican City.

The building technically lies outside the confines of the Vatican at the South-Eastern corner of the city-state and is one of the properties of the Holy See in Italy regulated by the 1929 Lateran Treaty signed with the Kingdom of Italy. As such, it has extraterritorial status.

It is where Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI) worked as Prefect of the Congregation.