San Marino

San Marino,[a] officially the Republic of San Marino,[b][7] is a landlocked country in Southern Europe, completely surrounded by Italy. Located on the northeastern slopes of the Apennine Mountains, it is the larger of two microstates within Italy, the other being Vatican City.[8]

San Marino is the fifth-smallest country in the world,[9] with a land area of just over .mw-parser-output .frac{white-space:nowrap}.mw-parser-output .frac .num,.mw-parser-output .frac .den{font-size:80%;line-height:0;vertical-align:super}.mw-parser-output .frac .den{vertical-align:sub}.mw-parser-output .sr-only{border:0;clip:rect(0,0,0,0);clip-path:polygon(0px 0px,0px 0px,0px 0px);height:1px;margin:-1px;overflow:hidden;padding:0;position:absolute;width:1px}61 km2 (23+1⁄2 sq mi) and a population of 34,042 as of 2025.[10] Its capital, the City of San Marino, sits atop Monte Titano, while its largest settlement is Dogana, in the municipality of Serravalle.

Founded in 301 AD, San Marino claims to be the oldest extant sovereign state and the oldest constitutional republic.[11] It is named after Saint Marinus, a stonemason from the Roman island of Rab (in present-day Croatia), who established a monastic community on Monte Titano.

The country has a unique constitutional structure: its Grand and General Council, a democratically elected legislature, selects two heads of state, the Captains Regent, every six months. They serve concurrently with equal powers.

San Marino is a member of the Council of Europe, uses the euro as its official currency, but is not part of the European Union. The official language is Italian. Its economy is based on finance, industry, services, retail, and tourism, and it ranks among the wealthiest countries in the world by GDP (PPP) per capita.[2] San Marino was also the first existing state to abolish the death penalty[12] and currently ranks 44th on the Human Development Index.[13]