Consulate of San Marino in the Philippines

By: Estelle Via Perello

As we have observed, there are a lot of changes in this world. Our world, up until this day, is going through such extraordinary times–having wars, conflicts, climate change, pandemic, and many more. But how come that despite all these, there are many countries who are still able to keep their identity and culture alive?

Let’s talk about how countries are able to preserve their rich heritage.

The UNESCO World Heritage was founded in the year 1945 in order for the world to continually learn, promote, and understand between people and to secure peace, with the purpose of being the educational, scientific, and cultural organization of the United Nations. During the year 1972, the World Heritage Convention was signed by the first member states of UNESCO wherein it is committed to encourage the identification, protection, and preservation of cultural heritage all over the world–making monuments and sites considered and recognized to have an outstanding value to humanity. 

One of these outstanding sites is the UNESCO World Heritage Site of San Marino: The San Marino Historic Centre and Mount Titano.

The country of San Marino, which is a landlocked country surrounded by the territory of Italy, might be quite small but this country and its people have great propelling force in preserving their culture, ways, traditions, and form of governance — claiming that San Marino is the world’s oldest republic. 

But how exactly do they have this kind of drive? 

This is because the country is located at the top of Mount Titano, wherein the Sammarinese are living as an independent state in Europe, inhabiting their Historical Centre, and preserving all its institutional functions implemented in the time of the middle ages. With this, San Marino’s identity of how it is today (being the “Ancient Land of Liberty”) all results because of the location of its country, making them be uninfluenced by the urban transformations in Europe during the Industrial revolution up to today. 

“San Marino and Mount Titano are an exceptional testimony of the establishment of a representative democracy based on civic autonomy and self-governance, with a unique, uninterrupted continuity as the capital of an independent republic since the 13th century. San Marino is an exceptional testimony to a living cultural tradition that has persisted over the last seven hundred years.” – UNESCO

Due to all of this wonderful site in the Serene Republic of San Marino, its Historic Centre and Mount Titano have passed the criteria for selection and is declared to be one of the lists of the UNESCO World Heritage in the year 2008. The site includes the mountain peak, the fortification towers, bastions, gates, and walls.

References:

UNESCO World Heritage Centre. (n.d.). World Heritage. UNESCO World Heritage. Retrieved June 25, 2021, from https://whc.unesco.org/en/about/

UNESCO World Heritage Centre. (n.d.-a). San Marino Historic Centre and Mount Titano. Retrieved June 25, 2021, from https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1245/

ÖUK Österreichische UNESCO-Kommission. (2019, July 26). World Heritage explained – animated short about the UNESCO World Heritage Convention (English) [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOzxUVCCSug