The Basilica del Santo is the heart and spirit of both the city and the republic; inside are the reliquaries and religious artefacts of San Marino, the saint and founder of the eponymous republic.
Although most of the basilica was constructed over the remains of the old parish in the middle of the 19th century, its origins hark back to a much earlier period. It once represented one of the first pre-Romanesque Christian monuments in Italy. Despite the loss of such an historic artefact, the basilica - built to the specifications of the Bolognese architect Antonio Serra - has its own neo-classical and Corinthian-columned attractions, as well as a bit of pre-medieval bric-a-brac left over from the old building. For instance, the solid bell tower was not just built in the 600s, it was rebuilt in the 600s, at the same time that the throne of the Regent Captain was installed.
The inside is made up of three aisles and seven altars, under one of which is a small urn containing the bones of San Marino. Part of his skull resides in a silver casket resting on a marble monument. Like elsewhere in Catholic Italy, the left-over parts of saints and holy men are revered as having the kind of thaumaturgic qualities that you just can't get from your local GP.
