San Marino

The principal church of San Marino, built in the 19th century on the site of earlier religious buildings going back to the 5th century, housing the relics of Saint Marinus — the stonemason from the island of Rab who founded this Christian community and gave the Republic both its name and its patron saint.

The second-largest town of San Marino, at the foot of Monte Titano on the road from Rimini, connected to the capital city by a spectacular two-stage cable car. Borgo Maggiore was historically the lower town where merchants and visitors stayed before ascending to the capital, and it retains some early buildings among its otherwise modern urban fabric.

The central and highest of San Marino's three fortress towers on Monte Titano, Cesta houses the Museum of the Crossbow — a medieval weapon that was both a practical weapon and a symbol of the Republic's right to arm its citizens. At 756 metres above sea level it is also the highest point in San Marino.

One of the nine castelli (municipal divisions) of San Marino, south of the capital city on the road from Rimini, notable for the State Museum of Ancient Coins — one of the most significant numismatic collections in Europe, displayed in a former prison building that was in active use until 1975.

The oldest and most dramatic of the three fortress towers on Monte Titano, Guaita crowns the twin-peaked hill that has served as San Marino's natural citadel since the 10th century. Its vertiginous ramparts and crenellated battlements on the clifftop edge make it an iconic silhouette visible across the Romagna plain.

The main civic square of San Marino, flanked by the Palazzo Pubblico (government building) and the Palazzo Garampi, and offering one of the most characterful town-square prospects in Italy or San Marino — a compact stone piazza with a fountain, formal trees and the backdrop of the fortress towers above the city on Monte Titano.