After four years of work, the Church of San Pietro is once again open to San Marino residents and visitors alike. The inauguration was attended by the Captains Regent Alice Mina and Vladimiro Selva, Bishop Monsignor Domenico Beneventi, and Secretaries of State Teodoro Lonfernini and Matteo Ciacci. Following a presentation of the restoration work, the reopening ceremony concluded with a blessing.
This is no ordinary church. Inside are niches carved into the living rock of Monte Titano, where, according to tradition, Saint Marinus and Saint Leo once slept. It was here, legend has it, that the Saint had a first oratory built and dedicated to Saint Peter — the very starting point from which the Republic traces the story of its own origins.
Bishop Beneventi captured the significance of the moment. “It is a gift returned to the entire community for everything this church represents: a guardian of our origins, a guardian of the very meaning of our community,” he said. “Being restored to our origin is not merely a metaphor embodied by the church’s reopening — it is also a gesture through which we are brought back to the values this church has always conveyed and safeguarded for us, the people of San Marino.”
The two Secretaries of State present echoed this sentiment: Teodoro Lonfernini, Secretary of State for Education and Culture, University and Scientific Research, and Youth Policies, and Matteo Ciacci, Secretary of State for Territory and Environment, Agriculture, Civil Protection and Relations with A.A.S.L.P.: “The Church of San Pietro is the cornerstone from which our country originates and was founded, and from which we have drawn more than one source of inspiration. We celebrate our history, our identity, our institutions, and also the religious dimension that is so distinctly woven into our history.”
