A danger averted
On 4 June 1543, the day of the feast of Saint Quirinus, the Republic repelled an attempted military occupation by Fabiano da San Savino, mercenary in the pay of the Romagnol barons. The attack was thwarted without significant losses and the Sammarinese community, attributing salvation to the intercession of the third-century martyr saint, decided to dedicate a chapel to him as votive thanksgiving. On the pre-existing site the present church was later built, around 1550.
The new church was entrusted to the Franciscan Capuchins, a young branch of the order born from the reform of the Observance. For nearly two centuries the building hosted the religious community before the official consecration in 1709, after enlargements and adjustments that gave it its current appearance. The annexed convent welcomed preaching friars and novices until the Napoleonic suppressions.
The discharge of the legion
On 31 July 1849, after the fall of the Roman Republic, Giuseppe Garibaldi with about two thousand volunteers took refuge in the Republic of San Marino, seeking shelter from the pursuing Austrian troops. The Regency, to avoid a foreign invasion of the territory, negotiated with the Austrians a safe-conduct for the general and his men.
Under the portico of St. Quirinus Church, in a square crowded with refugees and citizens, Garibaldi read the proclamation discharging the legion: he released the volunteers from any military obligation and gave them the freedom to choose whether to follow him to Venice or return home. The episode remains one of the most significant stages of the Italian Risorgimento passage, commemorated in San Marino with plaques and inscriptions still visible today.
«Soldiers, I release you from the oath: follow me or return to your fields. Italy will rise again from those who do not forget.»
The Deposition by Taddeo Zuccari
The interior of the church is in simple form, consistent with the Capuchin rule that shunned ostentatious ornament. The altarpiece is the "Deposition of Christ" attributed to Taddeo Zuccari (1529-1566), a Marche painter of the High Renaissance, trained between Bologna and Rome and active also in the Vatican palaces.
In the square in front, at the centre of a flight of steps, stands the monument to Saint Francis inaugurated in 1928 to a design by Edoardo Collamarini. The bronze statue is by Silvestro Monteguti, a Sammarinese sculptor. The monument overlooks the landscape of the Titano ridge and is one of the less-frequented but most striking panoramic points of the historic centre.
Within the monuments circuit
St. Quirinus Church completes, with the Basilica of Saint Marinus and the St. Francis Church, the trio of the most important religious buildings of the chief town. Those who wish to retrace the history of Garibaldi's passage through the Republic will find a complete picture in the historical page on Risorgimento and in the section on the relations between San Marino and unified Italy.