L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2020 www.italoamericano.org 22 L'Italo-Americano I taly, for centuries a patchwork of warring city-states, is again s h o w i n g i t s c o l o r s through a singular lit- t l e p r i n c e d o m i n a t i n y enclave on the Italian Riviera near the French border. I am not alluding to the Principality of Monaco but to t h e s e l f - p r o c l a i m e d Principality of Seborga, a magical mountaintop village o f 3 0 0 s o u l s l o c a t e d o n Italian territory in Liguria's rugged hinterland some 14 miles from Sanremo and 7 miles north of Bordighera. True to its history and conservative principles, this medieval village nestled amid breathtaking panoramas and olive groves has never forgot- ten the existence of an early principality it firmly claims is alive even today. In 954, Count Guido of Ventimiglia ceded Seborga to the Benedictine Monks of Saint Honorat, a small island in the Lérins archipelago off t h e F r e n c h R i v i e r a n e a r Cannes. From the 10th centu- r y , S e b o r g a w a s r u n b y monks. Beginning in 1079 the monastery's abbot also b e c a m e t h e P r i n c e o f Seborga, ruling what was considered an independent p r i n c i p a l i t y i n t h e H o l y Roman Empire. " T h e P r i n c i p a l i t y o f Seborga has existed since 9 5 4 . W e m a d e i t t h r o u g h more than a thousand years," s a y s M a r i a C a r m e l a Serra, a resident of Seborga w h o l a s t F e b r u a r y w a s appointed a minister in the Consiglio della Corona, or C r o w n C o u n c i l . M a r i a Carmela was elected by direct election. T h e P r i n c i p a l i t y o f Seborga was reestablished in 1963 by Giorgio Carbone, a former flower-grower and a local historian who produced documents from the Vatican Secret Archives and the Turin State Archives, so he claimed, that prove Seborga was never the property of the House of Savoy and therefore not part of the Kingdom of Italy after 1861. Carbone asserted that the village has been a sover- eign state since 954 and a principality from 1079. I n 1 9 6 3 , C a r b o n e w a s p u b l i c l y c r o w n e d P r i n c e Giorgio I of Seborga, with the o f f i c i a l a d d e n d u m S u a T r e m e n d i t à , o r H i s Tremendousness. He became S e b o r g a ' s h e a d o f s t a t e , although without any legal power. "He held the position until his death in 2009 at the a g e o f 7 3 , " s a y s M a r i a Carmela. "Our prince holds office for seven years but he c a n r u n a g a i n a n d b e r e - e l e c t e d , " s h e e x p l a i n s . "Giorgio I, for instance, kept being re-elected. The Crown Council named him prince for life." "Prince Giorgio found his- torical sources to prove our independent status," insists Maria Carmela. "He used to tell us: 'Let's never forget we are a principality. We have never ceased being a princi- pality.'" I n 1 9 9 5 , u n d e r P r i n c e G i o r g i o ' s r e i g n , t h e S e b o r g h i n i o r S e b o r g a n s voted for their own general statute with voters support- ing independence by a mar- gin of 304 to 4. On August 20 the same year, on the feast of St. Bernard, patron saint of Seborga, Prince Giorgio reaf- firmed the territorial sover- eignty and jurisdiction of the principality. Soon after, the village adopted its own cur- rency, the Luigino, which today has an exchange rate of $6. "It is the strongest cur- r e n c y i n t h e w o r l d , " s a y s Maria Carmela. "We mint it in Turin. Everyone uses the Luigino in our local stores, if we didn't, it would be an odd- ity, don't you think?" T h e S e b o r g a n s h a d already minted the Luigino in the 17th century. Back then it was valued as a quarter of a French Louis and bore the i m a g e o f S t . B e r n a r d o f Clairvaux. The French saint, who was a major leader in t h e r e v i t a l i z a t i o n o f B e n e d i c t i n e m o n a s t i c i s m through the nascent order of Cistercians, visited Seborga in 1117. "The following year, in 1 1 1 8 , t h e p r i n c e a b b o t o f Seborga invested the first nine Knights Templar. Those warrior monks, who had a p o w e r f u l a d v o c a t e i n S t . Bernard of Clairvaux, arrived in Jerusalem in May 1119 and returned to Seborga in 1127 to further support the ecclesi- astic state. They established MARIELLA RADAELLI Diverse Italy: self-proclaimed Principality of Seborga, the world's smallest 'nation' LIFE PEOPLE PLACES HERITAGE Piazza San Martino, the heart of Seborga (Photo: Principato di Seborga) Continued to page 24

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