Museums of Monaco

Monaco is a world-famous, though tiny principality. First of all, it is famous for its chic sandy beaches and casinos, millionaires and tax benefits. And this small paradise is visited annually by about three million tourists. And you can look at many things here, as in Monaco, in addition to landscape and architectural attractions , there are museums - interesting and rare. We will tell more about some of them.

The most interesting museums

1. The most famous museum is rightfully considered the Monaco Oceanographic Museum in Monte Carlo. The building was visually located on the very edge of the cliff, although it goes to the rock itself and even goes down by the tunnel under the water. The museum appeared thanks to the strong passion of Prince Albert I for navigation and oceanography. Of all the trips and travels, he brought a lot of interesting devices, both underwater and deep inhabitants. All this required accurate and special storage. Since 1957, the director of the museum has become all the famous Jacques Yves Cousteau, and the development of the museum and interest in it have grown infinitely. The Oceanographic Museum includes 90 aquariums with representatives of all the seas and oceans, a unique collection of 4,000 fish and a hundred kinds of corals. Under the museum there are grottos, where you can see octopuses, morays, sea urchins and stars, hundreds of crabs and other lovers of underwater darkness. The museum exhibits a large collection of various instruments for navigation, underwater diving and ocean exploration. There is a beautiful park around the building.
2. Lovers of history and technology will be interested to see the collection of His Serene Highness: Museum of cars in Monaco. Senior Prince Rainier III has a great weakness for retro cars. To date, the collection consists of about a hundred different models, until 2012 there were 38 more. The cars were sold to expand the collection in another model range. More than half of the exhibits were issued before the 50-60-ies of the twentieth century. You will be shown old princely carriages, war machines of the times of the Second World War, vintage cars, representative cars and much more. You will be pleased with such models as De Dion Bouton 1903, Bugatti 1929, Hispano Suiza 1928, winning cars of Formula-1, which takes place every year on the Monte Carlo track , and other interesting exhibits, most of which do not exist anymore. The auto museum is recommended for a family visit.
3. In the country of millionaires there is also a free museum - the Museum of Old Monaco . It contains ancient objects: paintings and books, furniture and household items, traditional costumes, ceramics, all this tells of the life of the indigenous population - Monegasques. The museum is designed to preserve the cultural heritage, folk traditions and the language of Monegasques, founded on the initiative of the ancient families of Monaco. Its doors are open seasonally from June to September, and all excursions are necessarily accompanied by a guide.
4. In Monaco, there is an interesting museum of Napoleon and a collection of the historical archives of the Princely Palace , it is a kind of list of documents and subjects of the history of the so-called First Empire. The collection contains about 1000 exhibits from the personal belongings of Napoleon Bonaparte, some of which were brought from the island of Saint Helena, where he lived his days. Among them are the emperor's scarves, a compass, a clock in which he retreated, field binoculars, ornaments, linens, snuffbox, a bunch of keys and much more. The museum also holds a collection of the history of Monaco, incl. a decree on the independence of Monaco, letters of kings, awards and regalia.
5. We also offer to visit the Maritime Museum , which will surprise you with a collection of models of various ships, by the way, their 250 pieces. The collection includes approximately 180 models of real ships, the mock-up of the infamous "Titanic" and "Calypso" by Jacques Cousteau. Several models of ships - a copy of the property of His Grace Prince Rainier III. You will plunge into the interesting world of shipbuilding history.
6. The museum of prehistoric anthropology is dedicated to the results of archaeological excavations near Monaco. He is more than a hundred years old, he was founded by Prince Albert I in 1902, and keeps the most valuable exhibits of fossils of extinct animals and traces of ancient civilizations from the Paleolithic to the Bronze Age that allow tracing all the stages of human evolution from Australopithecus to Homo Sapiens.
7. Many tourists hurry to the Museum of postage stamps and coins , because this unique private collection collected generations of princes: Albert I, Louis II, Rainier III, it is replenished so far. You will be shown the first marks of the principality, including color ones, dating from the period 1885-1900, among the expositions the first printing press for the stamps of the state is kept. The museum exhibits a rich collection of banknotes and coins of Monaco since 1640.
8. The new National Museum of Monaco bears visitors the values ​​of cultural heritage and the foundations of modern art. The most interesting exhibition - mechanical dolls of the 18-19th centuries, many have a unique musical mechanism. Every day several puppets are set up for spectators.