History of San Marino

The history of San Marino is the development of a small republic whose traditions trace its founding to the early fourth century and whose institutions endured amid Italian state-building.

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Saint Marinus: A Christian stonemason traditionally regarded as San Marino’s founder and patron saint. San Marino’s traditional foundation dates to Marinus’s retreat to Mount Titano in the early fourth century.
Captains Regent: The two heads of state of San Marino, elected for six-month terms by the Grand and General Council. Their paired, short-term authority limits concentration of executive power.
San Marino during the Napoleonic era: San Marino’s experience during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic period at the turn of the nineteenth century. Napoleon’s respect for the republic and its refusal of territorial expansion became a defining diplomatic episode.
Giuseppe Garibaldi: An Italian general and nationalist leader who helped unify Italy in the nineteenth century. His 1849 refuge in San Marino made the republic’s independence relevant to the Risorgimento.
Mount Titano: A limestone massif in the Apennines and the highest point in San Marino. Its defensible terrain shaped the settlement associated with San Marino’s founding.
Grand and General Council: San Marino’s unicameral legislature, whose members are elected by popular vote. It elects the Captains Regent and directs the republic’s legislative government.
San Marino and the Risorgimento: San Marino’s relationship with the nineteenth-century movement for Italian unification. The republic sheltered Italian revolutionaries while preserving its separate sovereignty.
Abraham Lincoln: The 16th president of the United States, who accepted honorary citizenship of San Marino in 1861. His correspondence with the Captains Regent recognized the republic’s democratic institutions.
San Marino in the Middle Ages: The period when San Marino’s commune and governing institutions took shape under regional pressures. Medieval records provide firmer evidence for the republic’s institutions than its foundation legend.
Constitution of San Marino: San Marino’s constitutional framework, grounded in historic statutes and later constitutional legislation. Its layered legal structure preserves older institutions while governing a modern state.