about small countries reminded me of something I have been meaning to ask.
Several years ago I was watching a show on discovery or the history channel or one of those about odd things.
One of the segments was about a really small ‘country’. It was like a single block or two in the middle of italy or France I think. The name was a set of 4 or 5 initials and I think one of them was M and was for Malta. It was something like a wierd legacy of the Crusades when it was granted to a group of knights or something, and still a level of sovreignity, but I don’t think it was offically a country. I think they have a army of like 5 people, and issue their own stamps or something. It was a while ago and I may have forgotten or changed some of the details. I have done a lot of searching for it, but can’t find anything, and I’m beggining to wonder if I made the whole thing up.
Does that sound familiar to anyone? If I am right about the stamp thing maybe a serious philatelist has heard of it? It’s not Vatican City or the normal country of Malta.
A doper posted a place the states game. From the same site was a similar game about Europe. One of the countries was a three-letter abreviated name. I can’t remember what the initials were but I’ll try to dig out the game. I haven’t much time as I leave work in 10 minutes.
I don’t think it’s the Hospitallers - I remember posting something about this a while ago (regarding the most valuable currency unit in the world, bizarrely…)
I’m pretty sure SMOM is what the OP was thinking of. You are probably thinking of Seborga, a town in Italy that claims to be independent. Its currency, the luigino, is worth US$6.
The Knights of Malta. They were originally an order of religious knights called “The Knights of the Hospital of St. John in Jerusalem”, and they provided lodging and medical care for pilgrims and crusaders in the middle east (That’s where we get the word hospital to refer to a building that heals the sick). After the crusades, they ruled the Island of Rhodes (as the Knights of Rhodes) until 1522, when they were kicked out by the Turks. After the Turks conquered Rhodes, the King of Spain, probably figuring that one small island is as good as another, gave them Malta. They changed their names to the Knights of Malta, and ruled there until 1798, when Napoleon, probably figuring that he needed a vacation, went to Malta and took the place over.
At this point, being broke, (most of the Protestant countries siezed their funds and chapter houses during the Reformation, and they had a series of really incompetant Grand Masters), and lacking a king to give them another island, they fled to Rome, where the pope gave them shelter. They now exist as “The Sovereign Military Hospitalier Order of St. John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta”, figuring it was a better name than “The Knights of an Office in the Vatican”. They’re currently a country in the theoretical sense, but they don’t really own any land. They are parties to some treaties, they’re permanent observers at the UN, and their office has extraterritoriality.
They spend most of their time nowadays doing charitable work. Here’s their website:
Thank you, that is it. I was hoping I hadn’t invented the place, because I just couldn’t find it nomatter how much I looked. And thanks to Colophon also. SMOM was the name I was trying to think of.
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