In 1987, Prince Rainier III, widower of Princess Grace and father of the current monarch Prince Albert II, launched a biennial open-air sculpture fair in the streets, parks and public spaces of Monaco. It included specially commissioned pieces, as well as others from his personal collection — and it was a smash.
Indeed, it was so successful that he decided to leave all of the sculptures in situ and to continue adding new ones with each subsequent edition of the fair. Eventually, more than 200 pieces were on permanent display across the principality.
In 2023, they became collectively known as the Chemin des Sculptures Rainier III. As with the NC500 in Scotland, something that was already there — in the case of the NC500, a network of public roads — was given a catchy name and thus made freshly exciting to visitors.
Prince Rainier and his children unveiled Kees Verkaade’s 'François Grimaldi' in 1997.
A website offers maps and information on every piece and you can scan QR codes on or near each sculpture, which will open the relevant page. Organising a visit to Monaco around the Chemin des Sculptures — or simply taking an hour or two to take a quick look at it if you’re there for other reasons — almost guarantees you’ll see things you either haven’t seen before or wouldn’t see otherwise.
The trail can be undertaken casually, partially and with no regard for sequence. Hop on, hop off. It does make a certain sense, however, to start with Kees Verkaade’s 1997 sculpture of François Grimaldi, the founder of the Grimaldi dynasty, who in 1257 seized Le Rocher, the Rock of Monaco, disguised as a monk.
More than 700 years later, a Grimaldi is still calling the shots from the ancient palace in front of which stands this sculpture of a frankly rather slippery-looking, if not downright Machiavellian, François.
Most surprising of the numerous sculptures commemorating royalty along the trail is Manolo Valdès’s Reina Mariana, commissioned for the 2003 fair and occupying a prime position on the terrace behind the casino.
It’s a monumental interpretation in bronze of Diego Velázquez’s 1652–53 portrait of Mariana of Austria, who, a few years earlier, at the age of 14, had become Queen of Spain as the bride of Philip IV, her uncle. Manolo's chunky, body-positive sculpture makes for a striking contrast with Velázquez’s achingly delicate and melancholy portrait.
The fairest of them all? Anish Kapoor’s dazzling 1999 'Sky Mirror' is a star attraction in any tour of Monaco’s Chemin des Sculptures.
Manolo Valdés's 'Reina Mariana ' large-scale sculptures are crafted in bronze, wood and crystalline resin.
Monaco is not only steep, but also, these days, as densely stacked up as a Momofuku Milk Bar cake. If you take a few steps away from Manolo's sculpture across the terrace and look directly down, you’ll have a fine view not of the sea, as you might expect, but of the vast, flat roof of the Auditorium Rainier III.
What could otherwise have remained an unremarkable 16,000sq ft expanse of nothing in particular was transformed, in 1979, into a beguiling geometric rainbow by Victor Vasarely, a founding figure, together with Bridget Riley, of the Op Art (optical art) movement. Titled Hexa Grace, it comprises some 24,000 lozenge-shaped enamelled tiles fashioned from volcanic lava, each one rippling and radiant with elemental energy.
Perhaps the biggest crowd-pleaser of the Chemin des Sculptures is just around the corner, in the middle of the Place du Casino. This is Sir Anish Kapoor’s 1999 Sky Mirror. Sir Anish has created half a dozen or so of these large concave dishes in polished steel for different sites around the world, each tilted towards and reflecting a distorted, upside-down view of the sky and immediate surroundings.
Here, the immediate surroundings include the stupendous Casino de Monte-Carlo, the comparably magnificent Hôtel de Paris Monte-Carlo, the recently expanded Café de Paris and a stand of tall, gracious, immaculately tended Mexican fan palms. Quite the urban panorama, as glossy, ornate, moneyed and quintessentially Monte-Carlo as can be.
'The hypercars and selfie sticks suddenly seem light years away'
If all that’s a bit rich for your taste, simply spin on your heel and walk uphill for two minutes, into the gorgeous oasis that is the Jardins de la Petite Afrique. Although less well known than the Jardin Exotique, home to 1,000 cacti ranged across a sheer hillside, or the two gardens dedicated to Princess Grace, the Roseraie and the Jardin Japonais, it has a charm that’s entirely its own.
There you’ll find Andy Goldsworthy’s Slate Cone for Little Africa from 1991, a lopsided, cairn-like object positioned within a semicircle of trees, together creating a faintly ritualistic, stone-circle-ish and agreeably meditative vibe. The hypercars and selfie sticks suddenly seem light years away.
If the Chemin des Sculptures failed to satisfy your appetite for art, there’s plenty more on which to feast your eyes. The Nouveau Musée National de Monaco is housed in two splendid old buildings, Villa Paloma and Villa Sauber, which are marvellous inside and out.
A lively contemporary gallery scene has emerged — Almine Rech, Opera Gallery, Hauser & Wirth — in tandem with a flourishing Monaco Art Week, now in its eighth edition.
However, if pounding the sculpture trail has given you blisters, swap your pinchy shoes for squishy slippers and check in to the Prince Rainier III Suite at the Hôtel de Paris, which is stuffed with impeccably displayed, museum-quality art. That said, the suite is enormous, so you’ll still have to hobble around to see it all.
Click here for more information on the Chemin des Sculptures Rainier III.
This feature originally appeared in the June 3, 2026, issue of Country Life. Click here for more information on how to subscribe.