Saint Nicholas Cathedral

The Cathedral of Notre-Dame-Immaculee on the rock of Monaco-Ville is the principal church of the principality and the burial church of the House of Grimaldi. It was built between 1875 and 1903 in a neo-Romanesque Byzantine style of white La Turbie stone, replacing an earlier parish church that had stood on the site since the 13th century. The princes of Monaco rest in the apse; the most visited tomb is that of Grace Kelly, who married Prince Rainier III here in 1956 and was buried here in 1982 after a fatal car accident. Her grave bears only the inscription Gratia Patricia, Princeps Rainerii III, with her husband's tomb beside her. Early in the morning, before the crowds climb the rock, the cathedral is almost meditatively quiet, broken only by the bells of the nearby Palace changing of the guard at 11.55.