Monaco

Monaco is a city-state on the French Riviera, ruled by the princes of the House of Grimaldi. The Monaco Grand Prix has raced through its streets and around its harbor each spring since the 1920s.

Greek sailors named the harbor after Heracles Monoikos, and the Genoese built a fortress on the Rock in the 13th century. François Grimaldi took the fortress in 1297, by tradition dressed as a monk, and his family has ruled Monaco since then with short breaks. Monaco gave up the towns of Menton and Roquebrune to France in 1861, and Charles III answered the loss of income by opening a casino on the plateau across the harbor. The new district was named Monte Carlo after him. Prince Rainier III married the American actress Grace Kelly in the 1950s and widened the economy with banking, building and new land won from the sea.

The Société des Bains de Mer runs the Casino de Monte-Carlo, the Hôtel de Paris and the Opera, and Venturi builds electric racing cars and research vehicles in the principality. Port Hercule shelters large yachts and hosts the Monaco Yacht Show each September.

The Casino de Monte-Carlo, designed by Charles Garnier, shares its building with the Salle Garnier opera house. The Prince's Palace on the Rock, the home of the Grimaldi family, changes its guard each day at noon in the square before its gates. The Oceanographic Museum, built into the cliff above the sea by Prince Albert I, was led for decades by the explorer Jacques Cousteau. Saint Nicholas Cathedral, built of white stone in the late 19th century, holds the tombs of the princes and of Princess Grace.