Situated on north-eastern side of Italy’s Apennine Mountains, the Republic of San Marino is a country surrounded by Italy.

According to the World Bank, the population San Marino was 34,450 people in 2013. The residents are known as Sammarinese.

The City of San Marino is the capital of San Marino, but Dogana is the country’s largest city.

San Marino is 61 sq. km in size, or about 23.5 square miles, which is about a third of the size of Washington, D.C.

Geographically, San Marino is the world’s fifth smallest country and the third smallest in Europe (after the Vatican and Monaco).

Founded on September 3, 301 AD by stonecutter Marinus of Arbe, San Marino claims to be the oldest surviving sovereign state and constitutional republic.

San Marino is considered to have the earliest written constitution still in effect of any country in the world. The country is still governed by the Leges Statutae Republicae Sancti Marini, a series of six books written in Latin in the late 1,500 that dictate the country’s political system.

Most of the Italian peninsula was unified into one state by 1861, but San Marino remained independent. The United States established diplomatic relations with San Marino in 1861. The two countries enjoy friendly relations, working together in areas such as international trade and the promotion of democracy and human rights.

The San Marino government made United States President Abraham Lincoln an honorary citizen. He wrote in reply, saying that the republic proved that “government founded on republican principles is capable of being so administered as to be secure and enduring.”

From 1923 to 1943, San Marino was under the rule of the Sammarinese Fascist Party (PFS).