49 Fun Facts About San Marino

Like San Marino, which of these countries is entirely surrounded by one other country?

Lesotho lies wholly inside South Africa, as San Marino lies inside its one neighbour. Its king asked for British protection in 1868 to keep Boer settlers from swallowing the mountain kingdom.

Which of these countries is even smaller in area than San Marino?

Nauru covers about 21 square kilometres, a third of San Marino's 61. A century of phosphate mining stripped most of the Pacific island's interior, leaving only a narrow fertile belt around the coast.

The capital, the City of San Marino, sits atop which mountain?

Monte Titano was, by legend, a gift: a wealthy woman is said to have given the mountain to the stonemason Marinus after he healed her son.

San Marino's largest settlement is not the capital but which border town?

Dogana, whose name means 'customs house', has about 7,000 residents. In 2006 it asked to become a municipality in its own right, and the request was turned down.

The stonemason saint who gave San Marino its name came, by tradition, from an island in which present-day country?

Croatia's island of Rab was his home. He is said to have crossed the Adriatic to help rebuild a coastal city's walls, then climbed the mountain to escape the persecution of Christians.

San Marino's national holiday, 3 September, marks what?

The founding by Saint Marinus in 301 is tradition rather than record: 3 September is his feast day, and the first written trace of a community on the mountain comes centuries later.

Which of these has San Marino kept unchanged since 1463?

Its borders took their present shape when the pope rewarded San Marino with Fiorentino, Montegiardino and Serravalle for joining an alliance against a neighbouring lord, and Faetano was added in 1463.

Which Renaissance warlord seized San Marino in 1503, only to lose it months later when his father died?

Cesare Borgia held the republic for about six months. When his father, Pope Alexander VI, died, the hostile new pope Julius II forced him out and San Marino was free again.

A 1543 attempt to conquer San Marino failed when the invading army did what?

Got lost in dense fog, the story goes, on 4 June 1543, the feast of Saint Quirinus; the grateful Sammarinesi made his day a holiday and built him a church.

Which Sicilian martyr became San Marino's co-patron after a papal occupation ended on her feast day in 1740?

Saint Agatha's feast, 5 February, was the day in 1740 that a papal envoy ended Cardinal Alberoni's occupation, so the grateful republic adopted Catania's patron as its own.

In 1797 Napoleon offered San Marino what, which its regents politely declined?

Extra territory was offered through Napoleon's envoy. On Antonio Onofri's advice the regents said no, wary of claims their neighbours might make later, and accepted only a gift of grain.

Which Italian unification hero took refuge in San Marino in 1849 with Austrian troops in pursuit?

Giuseppe Garibaldi asked the republic for asylum, disbanded his army there, then slipped away by night with his closest followers and escaped the Austrians.

Which US president accepted honorary citizenship of San Marino, calling it 'one of the most honored' states in history?

Abraham Lincoln wrote back in May 1861, weeks into the Civil War, to accept the regents' offer; the State Department counts that letter as America's recognition of San Marino.

In 1865 San Marino became the first country in Europe to do away with what entirely?

The death penalty went for good in 1865, two years after Venezuela led the world. By then San Marino had not carried out an execution for centuries.

Why did Allied aircraft bomb neutral San Marino on 26 June 1944?

Germans were thought to hold it and to be storing arms there. The intelligence was wrong, as Britain later admitted, and the raid killed about 60 people in a state sheltering 100,000 refugees.

Which kind of coalition won San Marino's 1945 election and governed until 1957?

Communist-socialist: the alliance governed for twelve years, until it lost its majority in 1957 and its opponents set up a rival government in an abandoned factory at Rovereta.

When San Marino's two heads of state finish their six-month term, what may any citizen then do?

File a complaint against them: since 1499 every outgoing pair has faced this review, over what they did and what they failed to do, and it can end in proceedings against a former head of state.

In 1243, San Marino's first recorded pair of joint leaders held which title, borrowed from ancient Rome?

Consuls is what a document of 1243 calls them. As in Rome, two shared the office for a short term, because the republic feared leaving power in one man's hands for long.

The six Latin books known as the Statutes of 1600 still serve as the core of San Marino's what?

Constitution: San Marino has no single modern charter, so rules set down in the old Latin books, such as the six-month rotation of its two heads of state, still bind the republic.

What is San Marino's 60-seat parliament called?

Grand and General Council members took over from the Arengo, the gathering of every family head, once the population grew too large for all of them to meet.

What are San Marino's nine municipalities called?

Castelli, literally 'castles': the word first labelled the fortified communities won from the Malatesta family, and it outlived the fortresses to name all nine local councils.

Paolo Rondelli became a San Marino Captain Regent in 2022, making him the world's first what?

Openly gay head of state: Rondelli, 58 and a former ambassador to the United States, took office in a republic where homosexuality could still be punished with jail until 2004.

Which medieval weapon does San Marino's oldest military corps still shoot at festivals?

Crossbows once defended the city walls. The corps lives on as a troupe of volunteers in medieval dress, shooting in contests with flag-throwers and drummers at its side.

Which of these non-EU countries, like San Marino, mints its own euro coins?

Monaco, like San Marino, Andorra and Vatican City, signed a monetary agreement with the EU that lets it strike a limited number of euro coins with its own design; Liechtenstein uses the Swiss franc.

Before the euro, San Marino's currency was what?

The Sammarinese lira was pegged one-to-one to Italy's, so Italian notes did most of the everyday work beside San Marino's own coins until both gave way to the euro in 2002.

San Marino's postage stamps, first issued in 1877, are mostly sold to whom?

Philatelists around the world buy most of them: stamp sales were already earning the republic 'a considerable income' by 1911 and still help to fund the state.

San Marino claims the world's highest rate of what, at about 1.6 per person?

Car ownership: about 54,000 vehicles are registered for fewer than 34,000 residents, a surplus put down to the republic's wealth and its lower taxes on cars.

Which goods does Italy supply to San Marino each year at cost under a treaty?

Salt, tobacco, cigarettes and matches come under a treaty in which San Marino agreed not to grow tobacco of its own; Italy also pays the republic an annual subsidy in return.

Roughly how many tourists visited San Marino in 2014, versus a population near 34,000?

About 2 million, and none of them met a passport check on the way in: visitors who want a souvenir of the crossing pay the tourist office a small fee for a stamp.

San Marino's Funivia cable car links the capital with which town below?

Borgo Maggiore, long the republic's market town, sits at the foot of the cliff; since 1959 a cable car has spared visitors the hairpin bends up to the walled capital.

Which of the Three Towers of San Marino is the oldest, built in the 11th century?

Guaita, whose name means 'to keep watch', was built straight onto the rock without foundations, and its cells went on holding short-sentence prisoners until 1970.

What did San Marino's historic centre and its mountain become in 2008?

A World Heritage Site: UNESCO listed the walled town and its mountain as testimony to a free republic that has gone on governing itself there since the Middle Ages.

What are the two colours of San Marino's flag?

White and light blue bands carry a crowned coat of arms, though San Marino has never had a king: the closed crown stands for the sovereignty of the state.

San Marino's best-known dessert, a chocolate-covered wafer layer cake, is called what?

Torta Tre Monti means 'cake of the three mountains', after the three towered peaks above the capital, and visitors carry it home as the republic's edible souvenir.

San Marino's Davide Gualtieri scored after 8.3 seconds against which team in a 1993 World Cup qualifier?

England hit back to win 7-1 but still missed the 1994 World Cup, because the Netherlands won elsewhere that night; the goal came from an under-hit Stuart Pearce back-pass.

San Marino's first Olympic medals came at Tokyo 2020 in shooting and which other sport?

Wrestling brought the third medal: Myles Amine, born in Michigan, competes for San Marino through citizenship passed down from his great-grandparents, and took a freestyle bronze.

Which shooter became the first San Marino citizen to win an Olympic medal?

Alessandra Perilli's trap bronze in Tokyo ended a 61-year wait and made San Marino the smallest country ever to win an Olympic medal; two days later she added a silver.

Which singer represented San Marino four times at the Eurovision Song Contest?

Valentina Monetta sang for San Marino three years running and, on the third try, took 'Maybe' into the country's first Eurovision final in 2014.

The Formula One San Marino Grand Prix, run from 1981 to 2006, was actually held at which Italian circuit?

Imola had staged the 1980 Italian Grand Prix; when that title went back to Monza, the race borrowed the name of the republic some 50 miles away so the track could keep a Grand Prix.

Which one-word Latin motto appears on San Marino's coat of arms?

Libertas, 'freedom', echoes the farewell that tradition gives the dying founder: 'I leave you free from both men', meaning the emperor and the pope.

Besides Italian, which regional language survives in San Marino, spoken mainly by the elderly?

Romagnol belongs to the Romagna, the Italian region on San Marino's doorstep. Italian is the republic's only official language, and UNESCO's atlas now lists Romagnol as definitely endangered.

Between 1932 and 1944 San Marino was linked to which Italian city by an electric narrow-gauge railway?

Rimini's line was Mussolini's project, paid for entirely by Italy. Bombed after only twelve years of service, it left behind tunnels that sheltered wartime refugees.

San Marino, a state since the Middle Ages, joined which organisation only in 1992?

The United Nations admitted San Marino on 2 March 1992, the same day as eight republics of the newly dissolved Soviet Union, so one of the oldest states joined beside the newest.

What is the name of San Marino's seat of government, guarded by the Guard of the Rock in the capital?

Palazzo Pubblico looks medieval but was built between 1884 and 1894 on the site of the old town hall; new heads of state are sworn in there every April and October.

San Marino's WWI volunteers ran what kind of facility on the Italian front?

A Red Cross field hospital was the neutral republic's contribution, staffed by its own people behind the front, while a handful of other Sammarinesi volunteered to fight.

What does the Cesta, the tower on San Marino's highest peak, hold today?

A weapons museum has filled the Cesta since 1956, so a fortress raised to keep armed enemies out now invites visitors in to see halberds, swords and suits of armour.

In which sport does a San Marino club play in Italy's top division and win European Cups?

Baseball: San Marino's club has played in Italy's top division since 1985, and has beaten its hosts to the national title as well as winning three European Cups.

San Marino sits on a ridge of which mountain range?

The Apennines leave San Marino with little natural level ground: almost the whole republic is hillside, falling from a towered limestone crest to the stream valleys below.

Which San Marino unit, formed in 1741 and dressed in blue and gold, is nicknamed for nobles?

The Guard of the Council, also known as the Noble Guard, stands watch whenever parliament sits and escorts new ambassadors when they present their credentials.