The Royal Palace: elements

The altar is from the Visitation Chapel located at the tip of the Rock of Monaco. The Visitation convent was founded in 1663 by Princess Catherine-Charlotte, wife to Louis I. Construction of the Chapel began in 1665, according to the plans by Marc’Antonio Grigho. This Genoese architect born in the region of Lugano also worked on the Princes’ Palace, probably designing the double staircase in the main courtyard and the main portal (porta maestra) circa 1675.

The staircase was inspired from the Renaissance Mannerist model in the Royal Palace of Fontainebleau (Cour du Cheval Blanc) near Paris, highlighting its majesty and the gentle curve while reducing its ornateness.

The main portal also displays characteristic Renaissance and Baroque features, reinterpreting 16th-century Roman Mannerist models in the curved double entablature punctuated by volutes. The Visitation Chapel is obviously related to Genoese Baroque Mannerism. The grandiose altarpiece against which the altar rests, probably more recent than the Chapel’s construction, was inspired by Bernini’s Baldachin in Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome.

The Visitation convent was deconsecrated in 1793 and used as a hospital, prison and barracks, before it became the Jesuit convent and school, then Monaco’s public secondary school in 1910 (Lycée Albert Ier today). After a fire in 1858, the Chapel was restored in 1870. Part of the furniture in the Chapel today dates from this time, including this altar, with the Jesuit symbol of the monogram of Christ IHS. The tabernacle door bears the Pascal Lamb.

The silver processional cross is usually kept in the Palatine Chapel (in the Princes’ Palace). It was made in 1810 by Xavier Dartes, jeweller, and Caulers, engraver in Montpellier, originally for the White Penitents’ Chapel in Lodève (near Montpellier): between the crucifix and staff, a vase with three cherubs in the round; at the intersection of the two branches, the Hebrew tetragrammaton in the triangle of the Trinity; at the extremity, three large bulbs formed by a vase surmounted by the hexagram of the Star of David, with garlands of leaves and flowers on either side; on the upper branch, the inscription INRI (Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Jews).

The Louis XIV-style gilt-wood guestbook table, usually in the Palace’s York Chamber, is decorated with carved openwork of seashells widthwise and women’s faces with ribbons lengthwise. The curved legs are linked by an X-shaped cross strut. The central octagonal motif is carved with a large flower surrounded by gadroons. The tray is made of marble, porphyry, onyx, breccia and brocatelle squares surrounded by Belgian Black marble. It may have already been used on 15 February 1863 for the civil wedding of Prince Charles III’s sister Princess Florestine with Friedrich Wilhelm of Württemberg, Duke of Urach, in the Grimaldi Room (today’s Throne Room). It is known to have served for civil weddings, again in the Throne Room, on 19 March 1920 of Princess Charlotte with Count Pierre de Polignac and on 18 April 1956 of Prince Rainier III with Grace Kelly.

The neo-Gothic guardroom dates from 1885. The coats of arms at the base of the arches of the cul-de-four vault are those of the Grimaldis’ allies from Rainier I to Honoré IV. The monumental fireplace, made of Poitou Stone, is by the architect Charles Lenormand, who also designed the Cathedral of Monaco, while the horseman on the mantle is the work of the sculptor Louis-Adolphe Carion.