Other princes and princesses at Seborga
Anyone searching the internet for information about the Principality of Sabourg — wrongly known as the Principality of Seborga, and in Italian Principato di Seborga — will certainly find a considerable number of web pages about “princes and principalities” that have nothing to do with the monastic state which existed in the Middle Ages. The purpose of this article is to answer as clearly as possible the question asked by many real and virtual visitors to Seborga: why are there so many “princes and principalities” at Seborga claiming the title without holding its religious prerogative?
Sadly, the main reason lies in the withdrawal of the monks from Seborga almost three centuries ago, which has given rise, since the 1980s, to various claims over the territory of Seborga by certain villagers known as “Seborghini”, as well as by certain aristocrats and self-proclaimed knights.
These claims, of varying nature and interest, have nothing to do with the properly Christian character of the medieval monastic principality. Some claim to be heirs of Napoleon, others of imperial or aristocratic families which historically had no link with the monks of Lérins. Thus, using “improper revelations”, they have created new and peculiar versions of the former monastic principality.
This phenomenon has produced a great deal of unreliable historical material, which will make it hard for the history enthusiast or the tourist attentive to local traditions to distinguish the authentic elements of the life and events of the monks at Seborga and Ventimiglia from those which, since the end of the last century, have distorted knowledge of the former principality.
This article is intended as a reasoned guide to the current secular interpretations of the monastic state. In particular we shall examine three different versions of the principality and of its princes and princesses.
Giorgio Carbone, the self-proclaimed prince
The association he founded in the 1980s is known as the “Principato di Seborga” (Principality of Seborga) and appears not to be legally constituted in Italy, although it is located on Italian territory. This principality created by Giorgio Carbone has a marked folkloric vocation that attracts many visitors to Seborga and which, thanks to various happy inventions, has borne great fruit, increasing the renown and the economic income of a small, then forgotten village in the Ligurian hinterland.
Giorgio Carbone (1936-2009) had proclaimed himself prince as early as 1963, when he was appointed grand master of a chivalric order called the “White Knights of Seborga”, a direct emanation of the “Paupera Militia Christi”. That order claimed that the Templars had founded the Order of the Temple at Seborga on the orders of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, to whom the title of Grand Master is also attributed. This myth finds no counterpart in the known history of the Order of the Temple, founded in 1118 in Jerusalem. Carbone was a well-established flower grower and, from the 1980s, his presence became significant at Seborga, thanks also to the media and to the impetus of the separatist movements then developing in Italy (such as the Lombard League) and in France. And it is precisely Occitania, with its history of Cathars, Cistercian monks and Templars, that inspired the flower grower to redefine the historical events of Seborga; it is for this that he is remembered at Seborga on a commemorative plaque as a creator of past realities.
In the 1990s Mr Giorgio Carbone, with a few local citizens known as “Seborghini” and some sympathisers, rode the expectation of independence at Seborga by creating a “home-made” principality, and involved a large part of the citizens of this village in the Italian province of Imperia in the project, granting those Italians the right to elect the Prince of Seborga (that is, himself). Carbone was chairman of the local tourist promotion association of Seborga (Pro Loco), and it was in that context that he conceived his Principality of Seborga, attracting a multitude of tourists who were unaware of the true historical place name. The Principality of Seborga of Prince Carbone would therefore have had a far smaller territory than the historic Principality, since it did not include the areas that did not coincide with the municipality of Seborga, where he carried out his role as a tourism operator.
There is no doubt that Giorgio I was a layman and that, consequently, the religious title of the last abbot cannot be transferred to him, since it can be conferred only by religious upon other religious. The prince therefore cannot be designated by the citizens of Seborga, since the electors, not being religious, cannot designate a religious office. Transferring the title of prince to a layman would interrupt the religious continuity of the monastic principality: there can therefore be no succession to the title.
It is clear that Carbone was not close to the principles of Roman Catholic doctrine, so much so that in his historical reconstruction of Seborga one can recognise the theses of the Occitan historians who authored the narrative of Cathars and Roman Christians united in an event crucial to the history of Western humanity. According to Giorgio Carbone's reconstruction, Seborga, as a place of Benedictine settlement, became the setting for events of Cathar and Templar inspiration which were not only far removed from the monastic vocation of the place but constituted a heresy. It is no coincidence that, for these theses, Giorgio I is remembered on the commemorative plaque placed in his honour at Seborga with the words: “expert in utroque and, through his writings, a populariser of the worship and history of the Cathar churches”.
Carbone attributes to Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, as a Cistercian abbot, the succession of Hugues de Payns, also describing him as the second Grand Master of a Templar order and protector of the Cathars at Seborga. The saint and Doctor of the Church thereby ceases to be a Cistercian abbot and becomes a heretical grand master and defender of the Cathars, enemies of the Church of Rome defeated by the Templars.
Depiction of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux as a Templar knight, placed outside the entrance door of the former cloister at Seborga.
“In the name of the sovereign people of the Principality of Seborga”
According to the historical and theological sources, the right to elect the Prince of Seborga belonged, and still belongs, exclusively to those entitled to vote for the office of Prince-Abbot, that is, the presbyters and monks of the Principality of Sabourg; and the title is “ad vitam”, not re-electable every seven years as established by Mr Marcello Menegatto, the successor of Mr Giorgio Carbone.
The villagers known as “Seborghini” are those born in the village of Seborga who have lived there for generations. They may be the descendants of sharecroppers who farmed the lands of Seborga and paid the tithe to the prince-abbot, but who had no right to elect the prince of Seborga — a prerogative which, we repeat, was (and remains) reserved to ecclesiastics.
The “Seborghini” villagers could have claimed independence at the birth of the Italian Republic, since individual territories were allowed to contest their annexation to the new republican State. And we are not aware that the “Seborghini” objected, perhaps in the hope of later forming a Republic of Seborga, as a demonstration of a desire for independence. In any case, this hypothetical republic would have had no link with the tradition of the medieval monastic state, as amply explained in the earlier parts of this article.
Marcello Menegatto, elected prince of the imaginary principality by the people of Seborga
Giorgio Carbone gave up the title of prince of Seborga in 2009, on his death. After a transitional period managed by the lawyer Alberto Romano, his successor arrived in 2010. This new prince, born Marcello Menegatto, was elected on a principle of sovereignty of the people of Seborga and took the name Marcello I. Marcello I unfortunately did not complete his second term and decided to abdicate and leave Seborga. During his time at Seborga he may have become aware of Carbone's ideas and of the fact that this was a principality governed by the Grand Master of the Knights of the Venerabilis Ordo Sancti Sepulchri, and therefore decided to amend the statutes drawn up by Carbone accordingly. Those changes threw into crisis the knights — probably already caught up in internal problems — who split and formed two separate orders: the VEOPSS and the VOSS.
It is worth noting that the elective office of prince (which for Carbone was for life) was changed by Marcello I to a term of seven years, as though electing the head of a republic. Marcello I gave up the title in 2019 and, by a new vote of the villagers of Seborga, his former wife Nina Dobler was elected head of the imaginary principality, thereby breaking with all monastic tradition by conferring the title on a woman.
Nina Dobler, first princess of Seborga
Mrs Nina Dobler claims to have acquired the title of princess of Seborga after being crowned in 2020 by the vote of the inhabitants of the village of Seborga and her supporters, in continuity with the provisions of her husband Marcello I.
It goes without saying that Mrs Dobler, having to justify her role as princess and as the first woman at the head of a historically monastic State, also had to amend its statutes. Among the changes introduced are the broadening of the prince's voting rights and the inclusion of new cases. Mrs Dobler appears on various television programmes, including national ones, stating that the title of princess of Seborga was conferred on her by the “sovereign people of Seborga”, whereas it is clear (see the video below) that the mandate conferred on her has no continuity with the former monastic State.
We note that the self-proclaimed modern princely state led by Mrs Nina Dobler is full of contradictions. To give only a partial list: the new head of state is a lay woman of German origin residing in the Principality of Monaco. Furthermore, among the ministers of a State said to be Christian, and therefore in principle opposed to the use of arms, there is also a minister of defence who has at his disposal a mock-Napoleonic cannon, placed on the main square facing the panorama and supposedly allowed to fire, paradoxically, towards the neighbouring territories of the Italian Republic. Under the princess's command there is also a militia which receives outsiders in a student-like manner, treating them all as foreigners even when they are Italian, thereby trivialising the witness of the first monastic state in the history of humankind. Recently we also learned that the minister of culture of this imaginary principality had dressed up as a Benedictine monk, probably to create confusion around the former State of the monks.
Diego Beltrutti, prior of the Venerabilis Ordo Sancti Sepulchri (White Knights of Seborga)
Diego Beltrutti is not a religious but a physician of Piedmontese origin who claims to be the successor of Giorgio Carbone, being the Prior elected by the Order of the Paupera Militia Christi founded by Carbone, which became the VEOPSS and, after an internal schism, took the acronym VOSS. Beltrutti maintains the same theses as Giorgio Carbone when the latter decided to claim the title of Prince of Seborga as Grand Master of the Ordo Sancti Sepulchri.
It should be noted that in the flag of the principality of Giorgio I, still used by Dr Diego Beltrutti, nine blue bands appear beside the coat of arms, representing the nine founding knights of the Order of the Temple, along with a reproduced coat of arms that goes back to the Greek monarchy.
Like Mrs Dobler, Beltrutti holds that Seborga became a principality in 1079 at the request of Emperor Henry IV, who is said to have conferred the title of Prince of the Holy Roman Empire on Abbot Adalbert I of Lérins.
We confirm that this reconstruction is supported by no historical or legal document.
Dr Diego Beltrutti of San Biagio is also said to have publicly defended the bishop of the diocese of Ventimiglia and San Remo on the website of the chivalric order he leads.
SEBORGA RITORNA AL DIRITTO E ALLA TRADIZIONE
Related pages
Related sites
- castrumsepulchri.com