The University of San Marino, in a former Poor Clares convent

A country of 61 km² with its own university sounds like vanity. I read it the other way round. San Marino waited until 1985 to create one, and when it did, it put it in one of the most atmospheric buildings in the old town. If you’re curious about how such a small state actually works, this is a piece of it almost nobody looks at.

A university from 1985 for a very old republic

The University of the Republic of San Marino was created by Law no. 127 of 31 October 1985, signed by the Captains Regent Ubaldo Biordi and Pier Paolo Gasperoni. Teaching really began in 1988, with the founding of the School of Advanced Historical Studies. Starting with history makes sense to me in a country that lives off telling its own story, and that section still keeps a library of around a hundred thousand volumes.

Since then the focus has turned practical. There are three departments (Economics, Science, Engineering and Design; Human Sciences; and History and Law) and three-year degrees in Design, earthquake-focused Civil Engineering, Management Engineering and Construction and Land Management. Nearly all of them are run jointly with Italian universities, mainly Modena and Reggio Emilia and Parma. I think that’s simply realistic, because a republic of roughly 34,000 people couldn’t staff an engineering faculty on its own.

The convent where design is taught

The main site is the former Convent of Santa Chiara on Contrada Omerelli, inside the old town protected by UNESCO. The university’s own magazine tells its story plainly. Work started in the 16th century, cutting into the rock of Mount Titano, and it opened in 1609 with twelve women ready to take their vows. More than two hundred enclosed nuns lived there over the centuries, the last of them until about fifty years ago.

What I like most is how every room has found a new job. The great hall, where Design students now defend their dissertations, was the church. Lectures are held in the old dormitory, the vegetable garden has become a lawn and the area around the bread oven is where internships and research projects get discussed. It tells you more about the town than plenty of plaques. To place it on a map, see my guide to the capital, the City of San Marino.

Can you go inside?

Let me be straight about this. It’s a working university, not a museum, and I couldn’t find any visiting hours for the convent. What is open to the public is the university library, housed in the convent itself, Monday to Friday from 8:30 to 14:00. It has sections on design, engineering, law and human sciences, plus one devoted to Sammarinese emigration, linked to the Emigrant Museum.

So here’s how I’d play it. If you’re on Contrada Omerelli on a weekday morning, the street and the façade are worth the detour on their own, and the library is your reason to step inside. The Emigrant Museum sits alongside the others in the museums of San Marino. And if the cloister catches your eye for another reason, the government lists it among the venues for civil weddings in San Marino.

The other sites, from the Rocca to Dogana

The History and Law Department sits on Salita alla Rocca, the lane climbing towards the Guaita, and Human Sciences is on Via Onofri, where the student office is too. All of that is a few minutes’ walk apart.

Engineering, on the other hand, is down on Via Consiglio dei Sessanta in Dogana, the gateway from Italy. And there’s one site I find the most appealing on paper. The official page for the castello of Montegiardino says the restored old Filippi house hosts a university institute of technological studies, and that the renovated flats of the walled centre are let to students. A tiny fortified village turned into student housing is an idea I’d like to see copied across Europe.

Erasmus and international students

Despite sitting outside the EU, San Marino has taken part in Erasmus+ since 2024, thanks to an agreement between its government and Italy’s. That year the university gained the European Commission’s ECHE charter and signed an agreement with INDIRE, the Italian agency that runs the programme. It also belongs to the network of universities of small states and to the European University Association.

For exchange students, the university asks for B1 English or Italian and, once here, a study residence permit from the Gendarmerie, with private health insurance covering at least €30,000 a year. It’s not complicated, but worth knowing before you arrive, because any long stay in San Marino goes through that office. One small perk for students on a budget is that a UNIRSM card gets you the reduced fare on the cable car between Borgo Maggiore and the old town.