The history or traditions of Monaco extend further back than those of most of the localities of the Riviera. It derives its name from Hercules, who is supposed to have touched here on his way into Spain, and to have gained a great victory over the native tribes. Hence the name of Portus Herculis, by which the place was known in the early centuries of our era. This was afterwards changed to Portus Herculis Monœci, and finally into Monaco. The rocky fortress subsequently fell into the hands of the Saracens, who are said to have been expelled from it in the tenth century by the same Grimoald or Grimaldi who dislodged the Moors from the Grand Fraxinet, and whose successors became the Princes of Monaco.
FIG. 257. HOUSES AT LA TURBIE.
In the eleventh century the place seems to have been abandoned, and in 1162 the Emperor Frederick I. presented it to the Republic of Genoa, who took possession, and rebuilt the fortifications in 1215. During the struggles of the Italian Republics, and the wars of the Guelphs and Ghibellines, Monaco several times changed hands, but was most frequently in the possession of the Grimaldi, and sometimes became the shelter of bands of pirates who scoured the Mediterranean. The Grimaldi sided with the French in the Italian wars of Charles VIII. and Louis XII., and through the influence of the latter became the governors of the whole of the Western Riviera.
During the struggle between France and Spain in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Monaco was alternately under the protection of each. The boundaries of the principality then included Mentone and Roquebrune, but in 1848 Mentone declared itself a free town. Since the annexation of the county of Nice by France, the principality, which is about three miles long by about half a mile wide, is entirely surrounded by the French Canton of “Menton.”
A comparatively easy drive to the town has now been made up the east side of the rock, but the original approach was by a steep flight of steps, carefully defended with strongly fortified gates, and commanded by the battlements above (see sketch, [Fig. 258]). The existing works at this point are evidently of the seventeenth century. The north side, which overlooks the mainland, was fortified with a large circular bastion at the western angle ([Fig. 259]), and a square one at the eastern angle. The former still retains some of the large corbels which carried the original parapet of the fifteenth century; but the bastions have been heightened and made suitable for artillery at a later date. On arriving at the top of the entrance to the town, a wide open staircase ascends to the front of the Ducal Palace ([Fig. 258]). This edifice is a picturesque assemblage of buildings of several dates, chiefly of the Renaissance period. Some of the old towers retain their forked battlements, a form common in the North of Italy. The whole place is vast and palatial, and from its lofty site and splendid background, composed of a rugged mountain called the Tête de
FIG. 258. DUCAL PALACE, MONACO.