Page 96 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Provence & The Côte d'Azur

94  PROVENCE AREA B Y AREA

d Monaco

If you come to Monaco by car, you may well travel in
on the Moyenne Corniche, one of the world’s most
beautiful coastal highways. Arriving amid the sky­
scrapers of present­day Monaco, it is hard to imagine
its turbulent history, much of it centred on Monaco­Ville.
The palace, cathedral and museums are all in this old
part of town, set on the Rock, a sheer­sided, flat­topped
finger of land extending 792 m (2,600 ft) into the sea.
First a Greek and later a Roman colony, it was bought
from the Genoese in 1309 by François Grimaldi. In spite
of family feuds and at least one political assassination,
the Grimaldis, whose crest shows two sword­waving
monks, remain the world’s oldest ruling monarchy.
Modern Monaco
Lack of space has led to vertical
building, and a striking skyline of
skyscrapers and apartment blocks.

Palais Princier
The Grimaldis have ruled
from here since the 14th century.
The palace dates from the 16th–17th
centuries but its towers are Genoese of
1215. The constitution insists it is guarded
by French carabiniers. (See p98).

KEY Cathédrale
This Neo-Romanesque
1 Museum of Vieux Monaco
construction in cream-
2 Monaco Top Cars Collection, coloured stone sits on
is an automobile museum displaying a rocky spur. Among
Prince Rainier III’s private collection its treasures are two
of more than one hundred early 16th-century
antique cars. screens by Bréa, La Pietà
and St-Nicolas. (See p98).
For hotels and restaurants in this region see pp198–9 and pp208–11