Prince's Palace of Monaco

Listen first. Gulls call above the cliffs. Gravel crunches under boots. Somewhere below, a boat engine hums in the harbour. You are standing on the Rock, the high stone headland that rises straight out of the Mediterranean. In front of you is the home of Monaco's ruling family, the Prince's Palace. Its pale walls glow warm in the sun, and its towers look out over the sea it was built to watch.

Before we go further, a small clarification. Many visitors think of all of Monaco as Monte Carlo. In fact, Monte Carlo is the district of the casino and grand hotels, across the harbour. The palace sits in Monaco-Ville, the old town on the Rock. Locals simply call this place Le Rocher, the Rock. From here, you can see Monte Carlo spread out across the water. You are looking at the newer city from the older one.

This site began as a fortress, not a palace. In the early thirteenth century, the Republic of Genoa built defences here. Genoa was a powerful merchant city on the Italian coast. The Rock was a natural stronghold. It had steep cliffs on three sides and a sheltered harbour below. Whoever held it controlled a useful stretch of coastline. That is why the walls you see still have a military shape, even under the elegant decoration.

Now comes the story every visitor should hear. In 1297, a man named François Grimaldi took the fortress. According to the family's own tradition, he arrived at the gate dressed as a Franciscan monk. He asked for shelter. The guards let him in. Then he and his hidden companions seized the castle. Historians accept that Grimaldi took the Rock that year. The details of the disguise belong more to legend. Either way, the family has never let the story go.

Here is the first surprise. Look at the Grimaldi coat of arms on the palace and around the town. It shows a red and white shield. On either side stand two monks, and each monk holds a raised sword. Those are not decorative saints. They are a direct reminder of that night in 1297. Few royal families put a trick into their heraldry. This one put it at the centre. The family motto beneath reads Deo Juvante, which means with God's help.

The Grimaldi hold of the Rock was not continuous at first. Over the following centuries, they lost it and regained it more than once. Monaco lived between larger powers, especially France, Spain and the Italian states. The family survived by changing alliances when they had to. Slowly, the fortress turned into a residence. Painters and builders added galleries, frescoes and fine rooms, especially during the Renaissance, the period of renewed art and learning that began in Italy.

The hardest chapter came with the French Revolution, at the end of the eighteenth century. France annexed Monaco. The princely family lost its home. The palace was stripped of furniture and art. For a time, it was used as a military hospital and as a poorhouse. When the Grimaldi returned in the early nineteenth century, they found a damaged shell. Much of what you see inside today is the result of long restoration work that followed.

Look at the square in front of you, the Place du Palais. Old cannons stand along its edge, some beside neat stacks of cannonballs. They come from the centuries when this was a working fortress. Beyond them, the low wall opens onto one of the best views in the principality. To one side lies the harbour, Port Hercule, full of white yachts. To the other lies Fontvieille, a newer district built partly on land reclaimed from the sea.

Now turn back to the palace gate. Here stand the Carabiniers du Prince, the prince's guard. They wear white uniforms in summer and dark uniforms in winter. Each day, shortly before midday, they hold a changing of the guard ceremony. It is short, precise and accompanied by drums. Crowds gather fast, so people often arrive early to claim a spot near the railings. Watch the guards' boxes too. They are striped in red and white, the Grimaldi colours.

Here is the second surprise. Look up at the flagpole above the palace. When the reigning prince is in residence, his personal standard flies there. When he is away, it does not. So a quick glance upward tells you whether the head of state is at home. In most countries, a leader's movements are private. In Monaco, the palace roof tells everyone.

Inside, during the season when the State Apartments open to visitors, you pass through the Courtyard of Honour. Its centrepiece is a grand double staircase in white marble. It curves up in two arms toward a gallery. That gallery, named after Hercules, carries painted ceilings from the Renaissance period showing scenes from his legend. Further in, you reach rooms hung with portraits of the Grimaldi line, and the Throne Room, with its rich red fabrics and gilding.

The Throne Room holds a famous modern memory. In 1956, Prince Rainier the Third married the American film star Grace Kelly. Their civil wedding took place in this palace, with the religious ceremony in the cathedral nearby. The wedding brought the eyes of the world to this tiny state. Rainier also oversaw major restoration of the palace during his long reign. Today, his son, Prince Albert the Second, rules from these same walls.

Take a moment before you leave the square. The palace is not a museum frozen in the past. It is a working home and the seat of a living monarchy. Offices run inside. Guards change every day. Flags go up and down. The same cliffs that the Genoese fortified, and that a man in a monk's robe once talked his way past, still hold this building above the water.

As you walk away, follow the narrow lanes of the old town behind you. Notice the pastel houses, the small shuttered windows, the quiet after the noise of the square. Then look back once, toward the palace walls and the sea beyond them. Listen for the gulls again. Feel the warm stone under your hand on the wall. Seven centuries of one family's story started on this ground, and you are standing on it now.