Principality of Seborga
The Principality of Seborga is a micronation or a fantasy state, that claims a 14 km2 area located in the northwestern Italian Province of Imperia in Liguria, near the French border, and about 35 km (23 mi) from Monaco. The principality is in coexistence with, and claims the territory of, the town of Seborga.
In arguing for the founding of Seborga in 1963, a Seborgan named Giorgio Carbone claimed, based on documents from the Vatican archives, that during the Middle Ages the town had become part of the feudal holdings of the Counts of Ventimiglia. He insisted that in the year 954, Seborga became the property of the Benedictine Monks of Santo Onorato of Lerins and in 1079 the Abbot of this monastery was made a Prince of the Holy Roman Empire, with temporal authority over the Principality of Seborga.
Allegedly on 20 January 1729, this independent principality was sold to the Savoy dynasty and became a protectorate of theirs. In 1815 the Congress of Vienna overlooked Seborga in its redistribution of European territories after the Napoleonic Wars, and there is no mention of Seborga in the Act of Unification for the Kingdom of Italy in 1861. The Unification of Italy in 1861 and the Italian Republic in 1946 would therefore illegitimate and unilateral acts, because they violate the legitimate sovereignty of the people of Seborga. The exile of the Savoy, in 1946, involved also the end of ius patronatus.
The argument for Seborga's present-day status as an independent state is based on the claim that the 1729 sale was never registered by its new owners, resulting in the principality falling into what has been described as a legal twilight zone.
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