45 Fun Facts About Monaco

Monaco's entire coastline faces which sea?

Mediterranean Sea: short of land, Monaco has built whole new districts out into it, reclaiming ground from the water since the 1960s.

Monaco is the second-smallest sovereign state in the world; which is the smallest?

Vatican City would fit inside Monaco more than four times over, yet Monaco itself is smaller than New York's Central Park.

Which family has ruled Monaco, with brief interruptions, since 1297?

Grimaldi rule began in 1297; the family lost the principality to the French revolutionary republic from 1793 to 1814 and regained it under the Treaty of Paris.

How is 'Malizia' said to have captured Monaco's fortress in 1297?

Disguised as a Franciscan friar, the story goes, he was let through the gates and seized the fortress with his men; two sword-bearing friars still flank Monaco's coat of arms.

Monaco was refounded in 1215 as a colony of which maritime republic?

Genoa was granted the site by Emperor Henry VI in 1191 and built a fortress there in 1215 to guard its interests along the coast.

Which tennis player won the Monte-Carlo Masters a record 11 times?

Rafael Nadal won it eight years running from 2005 and three more times from 2016 to 2018, though the club's clay courts actually sit just across the border in France.

Which American-born entertainer who found fame in Paris is buried in Monaco?

Josephine Baker was helped by Princess Grace to find a home nearby after losing her château; France honoured her in the Panthéon in 2021, but her grave stayed in Monaco.

Which two towns, most of Monaco's territory, did Charles III cede to France in 1861?

Menton and Roquebrune had broken away in 1848 and sat under Sardinian protection; under the 1861 treaty Charles III sold his claim for about 4 million francs and won recognition of Monaco's sovereignty.

Casino profits let Monaco stop collecting which tax from its residents in 1869?

Income tax was scrapped by Charles III in 1869 once the casino was paying the state's way, and the lure for wealthy newcomers has lasted ever since.

Which future World Cup winner, aged 18, fired AS Monaco to the 2017 French league title?

Kylian Mbappé had made his debut at 16, taking Thierry Henry's record as the club's youngest player, and joined Paris Saint-Germain within months of the title.

Which French architect designed the opera house inside the Monte Carlo casino?

Charles Garnier, who had built the Paris Opéra, gave the casino its theatre, the Salle Garnier, opened in January 1879 with a performance by Sarah Bernhardt.

Who is forbidden to gamble in the Monte Carlo casino?

Monégasque citizens have been kept out of the gaming rooms since the casino's early years, a rule put down to morals in one account and to protecting locals' money in another, while visitors' losses went on to fund the state.

Monaco has no airport, so a helicopter shuttle links it to the airport of which city?

Nice: the hop to its airport takes about seven minutes, and passengers on some airlines can check in for their flight at Monaco's heliport before they board the helicopter.

Which Russian impresario based his Ballets Russes in Monte Carlo in the 1920s?

Sergei Diaghilev made Monte Carlo his company's base, and many of the Ballets Russes' new works were given their premieres on the casino's stage.

What is the highest point in Monaco?

The entrance to a residential building, the Patio Palace on the Chemin des Révoires, is Monaco's top at just over 160 metres; the slope belongs to Mont Agel, whose summit lies across the border.

Which Monaco district was built on land reclaimed from the sea in the 1970s?

Fontvieille exists because Monaco ran out of land: landfill pushed the shore outward to make room for light industry, a marina and the national stadium.

Monaco's old town and seat of government sit on a promontory known as what?

The Rock (Le Rocher) is a headland about 60 metres high whose cliffs made it a natural stronghold, so the medieval fortress that became the Prince's Palace was built on top.

Which prince reigned over Monaco from 1949 to 2005?

Rainier III succeeded his grandfather in 1949 and reigned for nearly 56 years; in 1962 he gave Monaco a new constitution that shared his power with an elected council.

Which Pierce Brosnan Bond film shot its casino scenes on location in Monte Carlo?

GoldenEye sends 007 to Monaco, where he beats the assassin Xenia Onatopp at baccarat before she steals a helicopter from a military display in the harbour.

Princess Grace won her Best Actress Oscar for which 1954 drama about a fading singer's wife?

The Country Girl, with Bing Crosby as the washed-up singer, brought her the Academy Award in 1955 ahead of Judy Garland, nominated for A Star Is Born.

How did Princess Grace die in 1982?

A car crash on 13 September 1982, after she suffered a stroke at the wheel on the road above the principality, left her in a coma; she died the next day aged 52.

In which US city was the future Princess Grace born?

Philadelphia: her father, John B. Kelly, was a self-made brick millionaire and triple Olympic rowing champion, so the future princess grew up wealthy long before Hollywood.

What are the names of Princess Grace's three children?

Caroline, Albert and Stéphanie: Albert, the middle child, inherited the throne in 2005 ahead of his elder sister Caroline because Monaco's succession puts sons first.

Prince Albert II competed at five Winter Olympics in which sport?

Bobsleigh took him to five straight Winter Games, from Calgary 1988 to Salt Lake City 2002; he had already tried the Paris-Dakar Rally in 1985, without reaching the finish.

Prince Albert II's wife, Princess Charlene, was an Olympic competitor for South Africa in which sport?

Swimming brought them together: Charlene Wittstock met the prince at a meet in Monte Carlo in 2000, the year she swam for South Africa at the Sydney Olympics.

Which driver won the Monaco Grand Prix six times, including five in a row from 1989?

Ayrton Senna won in 1987 and then five years running from 1989; the one he lost in between, in 1988, he threw away by crashing at Portier while far in the lead.

Which British driver was nicknamed 'Mr Monaco' after five wins in the 1960s?

Graham Hill won it in 1963, 1964, 1965, 1968 and 1969, yet he had not even passed his driving test until he was 24.

The Monaco Grand Prix forms the Triple Crown of Motorsport with Le Mans and which other race?

The Indianapolis 500 completes the trio; chasing it, Fernando Alonso skipped the 2017 Monaco Grand Prix to race at Indianapolis, where he led 27 laps before retiring near the end.

Which manager signed Glenn Hoddle and George Weah for AS Monaco and won the 1988 French title?

Arsène Wenger won the league in his first season; Monaco later refused to release him to Bayern Munich, then sacked him weeks into the 1994-95 season, two years before he joined Arsenal.

Which Russian billionaire bought a majority stake in AS Monaco in December 2011?

Dmitry Rybolovlev, who made his fortune in potash fertiliser, bought two-thirds of the club in December 2011 while it sat at the bottom of the second division; it won promotion in 2013 and the French title in 2017.

What is the name of AS Monaco's home stadium?

Stade Louis II sits above street level: its pitch rests on the roof of a car park, more than eight metres up, in a complex that also holds a sports hall and an aquatic centre.

In April 2006 Prince Albert II led a sled expedition that reached which place?

The North Pole: he made the trek to draw attention to global warming, following his great-great-grandfather Albert I into the Arctic, and later visited the South Pole too.

Who directed Monaco's Oceanographic Museum from 1957 to 1988?

Jacques-Yves Cousteau, co-inventor of the Aqua-Lung, used the post to campaign: in 1960 he rallied public opinion against a French plan to dump radioactive waste in the sea off the Riviera.

Monaco's flag is nearly identical to that of which Asian country?

Indonesia's flag differs only in proportions and shade; Monaco's red and white come from its ruling family's arms, used since at least 1339, and Indonesia's from the medieval Majapahit empire.

Monaco uses the euro as its currency while staying outside which organisation?

The European Union: Monaco gets the euro and its place in the EU customs area through its ties with France, while it joined the United Nations in its own right in 1993.

Which French president blockaded Monaco in 1962 over its status as a tax haven?

Charles de Gaulle ringed the principality with customs posts in October 1962; the 1963 deal that ended the standoff made French citizens living in Monaco pay their taxes to France.

Which sport's world governing body voted in 1993 to move its headquarters from London to Monaco?

Athletics: the federation, now World Athletics, had been hit with a $27 million US court award to Butch Reynolds, a sprinter it had banned, and officials said its London base left it exposed to such suits.

Which small military unit guards Monaco's prince and his palace?

The Carabiniers, formed in 1817, number little more than a hundred because France is responsible for Monaco's defence; the company exists to protect the prince and his palace.

Which Monte Carlo restaurant is one claimed birthplace of the crêpe Suzette?

Café de Paris, open since 1868, is where a teenage waiter, Henri Charpentier, claimed to have created the dish by accident in 1895 while serving the future Edward VII; rival origin stories exist.

The Monaco Grand Prix is the only Formula 1 event exempt from which rule?

The minimum race distance: every other Grand Prix must cover just over 305 km, but Monaco's 78 laps of its tight street circuit add up to only about 260 km.

Monaco's name is traditionally traced to a temple of which Greek hero, known there as 'Monoikos'?

Heracles was said to be honoured there under the name Monoikos; the name may really be older and Ligurian, but the main harbour is still called Port Hercules.

Which 1910 event forced Monaco's princes to give up absolute rule and accept a constitution?

The Monégasque Revolution was a revolt by citizens against Prince Albert I's absolute rule; he answered in January 1911 with Monaco's first constitution, which created an elected National Council.

Which Ferrari driver won the 2024 Monaco Grand Prix, his home race?

Charles Leclerc, born in Monaco in 1997, led from pole to take his first home win on 26 May 2024 for Ferrari, after years of bad luck there that included failing to start from pole in 2021.

What currency did Monaco mint before adopting the euro in 2002?

The Monégasque franc, issued at par with the French franc and legal tender alongside it, gave way to the euro in 2002; under a monetary agreement Monaco mints euro coins with its own national side.

Monaco's cliffside Jardin Exotique is best known for its collection of which plants?

Cacti and other succulents from dry regions as far off as Mexico and southern Africa cover the cliff, and a cave beneath them yielded traces of prehistoric people, now shown in a museum in the garden.