Monaco

The rock was a Greek colony — Monoikos, “the single house”, an epithet of Heracles — then a Ligurian port on the Roman road linking Italy to Gaul. The cathedral, seat of an archbishopric since 1981, holds the princely tombs.

Founded as a Greek colony then integrated into the Roman province of the Maritime Alps, the stronghold was taken in 1297 by Francesco Grimaldi disguised as a monk — an episode the coat of arms still recalls.

Successively under Spanish, French and then Sardinian protection, Monaco lost Menton and Roquebrune in 1861 and ceded the rest of its farmland to France. Prince Charles III then created the Société des bains de mer and the Monte-Carlo casino, which refounded the economy.

The principality abolished income tax in 1869. The treaty of 1918 and then that of 2002 organise its relations with France. Monaco belongs neither to the Union nor to the Schengen area in its own right, but applies French border rules de facto and uses the euro by convention.