on the European continent ( agate grey ) — [ Legend ] List of countries by Human Development Index#UN member states (latest UNDP data) . San Marino (officially called the Most Serene Republic of San Marino ) is a country in Europe . It is one of the smallest countries in the world. It is in Southern Europe and is fully surrounded by Italy (this is called an enclave , and only the Vatican City , Lesotho and San Marino are like this). Fewer than 30,000 people live there. Its total area is 61 km 2 . Its capital is the City of San Marino . San Marino is claimed to be the world's oldest republic that still exists. It was started on September 3 , 301 A.D. by a skilled builder called Saint Marinus. Its written constitution was adopted on October 8, 1600. The very small nation was recognized by Napoleon 's France in 1797, and by the other European nations at the 1815 Congress of Vienna . Even though it is an independent country, it depends very much on Italy. Since the 19th century, when Italy was unified, San Marino has been fully surrounded by Italy . The biggest industry in San Marino is tourism . Selling postage stamps is an important source of income, too. San Marino is not a member of the European Union , but the euro is used in San Marino. People in San Marino speak the Italian language . Most people in San Marino believe in Roman Catholicism . Saint Marinus left the island of Rab (today Croatia ) with his lifelong friend Leo, and went to the city of Rimini to work as a stonemason . After the Persecution of Diocletianus following his Christian sermons, he escaped to the nearby Monte Titano . There he built a small church and founded what is now the city and state of San Marino. The official founding date is 3 September 301 AD. [ 6 ] In 1320 the community of Chiesanuova chose to join the country. In 1463 San Marino extended with the communities of Faetano, Fiorentino, Montegiardino, and Serravalle. Since then there have been no changes in the country's borders. In 1503, Cesare Borgia occupied the Republic for six months. It remained like that until Pope Julius II intervened and restored the country's independence. San Marino is covered by the Apennine mountain range, and it has a rugged terrain with no natural level ground. The highest point in the country is Monte Titano . There are no bodies of water of any significant size. It is between the Italian regions of Emilia-Romagna and Marche . San Marino is the third smallest country in Europe , Only Vatican City and Monaco are smaller. Two rivers flow through San Marino. There is no major water transport, and no major port or harbour . These are the 9 castelli (municipalities) of San Marino: The food of San Marino is very similar to Italian , especially the Emilia-Romagna and Marche regions. It has a lots of its own unique foods. It's best known food is the Torta Tre Monti ("Cake of the Three Mountains" or "Cake of the Three Towers"), a wafer cake covered in chocolate . The country also has a small wine industry.

Public holidays and festivals 1 2 3 4 5 "San Marino" . The World Factbook (2026 ed.). Central Intelligence Agency . ↑ "San Marino è" . GOV.SM . Repubblica di San Marino. Archived from the original on 7 May 2021 . Retrieved 28 August 2020 . 1 2 3 4 San Marino . Imf.org. ↑ Filling Gaps in the Human Development Index Archived 5 October 2011 at the Wayback Machine , United Nations ESCAP, February 2009 ↑ "San Marino" (PDF) . UNECE Statistics Programme . UNECE . 2009 . Retrieved 13 March 2010 . ↑ "San Marino country profile" . BBC News . 2018-05-18 . Retrieved 2022-03-07 . MusicBrainz area Historical Dictionary of Switzerland Italian-speaking countries Webarchive template wayback links Articles containing Italian-language text Articles containing Latin-language text Pages using gadget WikiMiniAtlas Pages using infobox country or infobox former country with the symbol caption or type parameters