"" Monaco Favorite Tip by Krystynn

Fondest memory: Monaco has an amazing history spanning some seven centuries of the Grimaldi rule. Do you know that the ROCK OF MONACO (see photo below) was also the scene of some very bloody fighting between Genoa’s two main factions: the Ghibellines and the Guelph? Just very briefly, it all began in the year 1215 (I think!) when the Ghibellines built a castle on the site of the present Palace. Sometime in the year 1297, the Guelph, Francois Grimaldi (the great, great, great, great...etc.. grandfather of Prince Rainier) managed to gain entry into the castle cleverly disguised as a monk. And between 1346-1355, Charles I Grimaldi established the Principality’s sovereign power by acquiring Menton and Roquebrune. Not long after, the King of France recognized Monaco as an independent country. However, in one of the treaties agreed between France and Monaco, it stipulates that if the reigning ruler dies without naming an heir, the Principality of Monaco immediately goes back to France. Well, this is just another page out of the many political intrigues filling the historical and political journal of this tiny Principality.