Rovereta, the border warehouse where San Marino had two governments

Rovereta is an industrial estate. Warehouses, car dealers, offices and a casino, in a corner of San Marino pushed so far into Italy it barely feels like San Marino. And yet this is where the oddest episode in the country’s modern political history played out. For two weeks in 1957, a half-built factory in Rovereta was the seat of a government challenging the Regency for power, and it won.

A tongue of land inside Italy

Rovereta belongs to Serravalle, the most populous castello, and according to Wikipedia it takes up the far north-east of the country, east of Dogana, on the border with the Italian village of Cerasolo Ausa. The same source says the name comes from «rovereto», a wood of sessile oaks, and describes it as a tongue of land surrounded by Italy on three of its four sides. That bit of geography, which looks like a map footnote, is the key to what happened in 1957.

The government lists it among the Republic’s most important business districts, alongside Galazzano and La Ciarulla. There are furniture makers, leather goods firms, wine and liqueur producers, and the AASS says two of the four high-voltage lines bringing electricity into the country arrive at the Rovereta substation.

What happened at Rovereta in 1957?

I’ll tell it as the Italian Wikipedia tells it, as I haven’t found an official Sammarinese account. From 1945 San Marino was run by a coalition of communists and socialists. In 1957 a group of socialists broke away, the Council was left split 30-30 and, on 18 September, an independent councillor switched sides, handing a majority to the Christian Democrats, independent socialists and social democrats.

The Regency’s response is still argued over. The two governing parties made their councillors sign an undated resignation letter, and on 19 September the Regency received 34 of those letters, now dated, dissolved the Council and called elections. The new majority saw it as a coup.

On the night of 30 September, its 31 councillors occupied a factory under construction in Rovereta. At midnight, as the Regents’ term expired, their executive committee declared itself the provisional government. Italy recognised it that same morning, and the carabinieri surrounded the building on the three sides facing Italian soil. The Regency raised a volunteer militia, and for days two governments shared a country of 61 km².

What strikes me most is how it ended. There was no battle. The head of the Gendarmerie, Ettore Sozzi, kept order, on 11 October the Regents recognised the provisional government and stood the militia down, and on the 14th the new government went up the mountain and moved into the Palazzo Pubblico. For the whole story since the year 301, see the history of San Marino.

The state casino

The other reason people look up Rovereta is gambling. Giochi del Titano, San Marino’s casino, is here at Strada dei Censiti 21, run by a company set up in 2007 with the State as its sole shareholder. It opens every day, slots from 14:00 to 6:00 and tables from 21:00 to 3:00, and you must be over 18 and show ID at the door. Wikipedia adds a historical twist, saying that before 1957 Italy had forced the closure of a casino that had only just opened in the Republic. It’s worth knowing that the State Gaming Authority also runs a free, anonymous responsible gambling help desk on the second floor of the Palazzo Diamond in Rovereta, for players and for their families and friends. Rooms, restaurant, opening hours of that desk and directions are all in San Marino’s casino.

Getting there

Two AASS buses, the 7 and the 47, come down from the capital via Borgo Maggiore, Serravalle, Dogana and Falciano to Rovereta on weekdays; the 47 carries on to the outlet. Riding them was free until the end of September 2026, and on Sundays there’s SMUVI. By car, you turn off the SS72 at Falciano just before the border.

My advice is not to make the trip for the history alone, as there’s no plaque or museum I can point you to with a source. But if you’re coming for the casino or the outlet, knowing that one of these buildings once decided who ran the country changes how you look at an industrial estate.