Nicholas III
Giovanni Gaetano Orsini · 1277 – 1280
Expanded the Vatican as a papal residence, regulated the Franciscan Order's poverty disputes, and practiced aggressive nepotism.
Giovanni was a Roman nobleman from the powerful Orsini family. As pope from 1277, he made the Vatican Palace the primary papal residence for the first time, expanding it significantly and commissioning new gardens. He issued the bull Exiit qui seminat, which tried to settle the bitter dispute within the Franciscan Order over the nature of evangelical poverty. He also distributed papal territories among his relatives with such enthusiasm that Dante placed him in the circle of the simoniacs in the Inferno. He died of a stroke in 1280.
Building the Vatican
Before Nicholas III, the pope's primary residence was the Lateran Palace across Rome. Nicholas shifted the center of gravity to the Vatican, building and expanding the palace complex near St. Peter's Basilica. The Vatican we know today as the heart of the Catholic world began, in a real sense, with his construction projects.