San Marino
Nestled in Italy a few miles off Rimini and the Adriatic Coast, San Marino owes much of its modern tourism industry to the distinctive capital (bearing the same name), which rises proudly above the Italian landscape atop Mount Titano. The city is vertically built, making for some tough walking, but is well worth it: stunning vistas of the Adriatic Sea, or the Po river valley are only half the attraction. Within the city itself, a medieval castle and three fortresses make this a one-of-a-kind sort of place.
While it is the world’s second smallest republic, San Marino is a proud nation, with a distinctive identity. Named after the saint who is said to have first settled the area, the Sammarinese remain devoutly religious. Holy days fill up the calendar. A less religious, yet wholly entertaining festival is the Medieval Days with Antique Crossbow Competition, which acts as an enjoyable reinforcement of the city’s medieval image.
History of San Marino
According to tradition, Saint Marinus left the island of Rab in Croatia with his lifelong friend, Leo, and went to the city of Rimini as a mason. After the Diocletianic Persecution following his Christian sermons, he escaped to the nearby Monte Titano, where he built a small church and thus founded what is now the city and the state of San Marino. The official date of foundation of the Republic is 3 September 301.
San Marino
The advance of Napoleon’s army in 1797 presented a brief threat to the independence of San Marino, but the country was spared its liberty thanks to one of its Regents, Antonio Onofri, who managed to gain the respect and friendship of Napoleon.
During the later phase of the Italian unification process in the nineteenth century, San Marino served as a refuge for numerous persons who were persecuted because of their support for the unification. In memory of this support, Giuseppe Garibaldi accepted the wish of San Marino not to be incorporated into the new Italian state.
In World War I, as Italy declared war on Austria-Hungary on 23 May 1915, San Marino remained neutral and Italy adopted a hostile view of Sammarinese neutrality, suspecting that San Marino could harbor Austrian spies who could be given access to its new radiotelegraph station. From 1923 to 1943, San Marino was under the rule of the Sammarinese Fascist Party (PFS). During World War II San Marino remained neutral. Despite that, on 26 June 1944 it was bombed by the RAF, which mistakenly believed that the country had been overrun by German forces and was being used to amass stores and ammunition.
San Marino also had the world’s first democratically-elected communist government, which held office between 1945 and 1957 and again between 2006 and 2008.
San Marino became a member of the Council of Europe in 1988 and of the United Nations in 1992. It is not a member of the European Union.
