Situation Sovereign state in southern Europe, member of the United Nations since 1993, the Principality of Monaco with a population of 35OOO, of which 7200 are nationals, is situated on the Riviera, on the Mediterranean coast,53 km from Cannes, 19 km from Nice, and 11 km from Menton the last resort of the Côte d’Azur before Italy. Monaco forms an enclave in the Alpes-Maritimes, with frontiers of 4,4km in length and 300 m in width, limiting its territory between the French communes of Cap d’Ail, Beausoleil and Roquebrune-Cap Martin. |
|
| At the Beginning Monaco was primitively inhabited by celto-ligurian tribes, then by Massaliots who maintained a route linking its shores to Spain, and finally by the Romans. We do not know exactly when Monaco opened to Christianity, maybe as early as the 4th century. In the absence of concrete archaeological datum, the information we have gathered is to be found in Liguria, in the Alpes-Maritimes or in Provence. It is, at present, impossible to go back further than the 9th century, the Carolingian renaissance, epoch in which the worship of Sainte Dévote is situated. |
|
| The
presence of a port - Port Hercule - well known to navigators,
from where Julius Caesar set forth on his expedition in Greece,
against Pompey, the security established by the Romans, as well as the
roads they built, lead to greater accessibility. The
legend of Sainte
Dévote,
a young christian who was said to have been martyred in Corsica
around 304, and whose body drifted into the harbour of Monaco in a
small boat, in no way proves the existence of christian communities at
this time and place. Christian and pagan sepultures have been found around a small chapel, nestled against the grotto in the vale dedicated to Sainte Dévote. |
 
|
|
In the 5th century,
after the downfall of the Roman empire, the inhabitants of Monaco,
attacked by Barbarians who plundered the littoral, took
to the hills for refuge, and we have no trace of the bishops who
administered these faithful communities.
Manifestations
indicating a rebirth of religious life are revealed : in 1061
by the presence of the Saint Martin chapel at Carnolès, and
the cession in favour of the Bishop of Nice,fifteen
years later, by the la Turbie Prud'hommes, of the chapel consecrated
to Our Lady, that they had built close to the port of Monaco. Thus, through historical circumstances and its sociogeographical position between the County of Nice and the Republic of Genoa, Monaco was dependent on two bishoprics, since Roquebrune and Menton, at that time Genoese possessions, were soon to enlarge, and until 1848, the territory of what was to become the future Principality.
|
|
 |