Grace Kelly in Monaco, a trail from the cathedral to the rose garden

Grace Kelly arrived in Monaco as a film star and stayed as its princess for twenty-six years, and a good part of the city still bears her name. What nearly everyone looks for is her grave, but the full trail offers more, and I like it because you can walk it and it tells a whole life in four stops. I have put it in order with opening hours and prices, and I flag the claims that circulate without a source so you do not swallow them. Everything else you need to plan is in my Monaco travel guide.

From Philadelphia to the Rock

Grace Kelly was born in Philadelphia on 12 November 1929. She married Prince Rainier III in two ceremonies, the civil one on Wednesday 18 April 1956 in the Palace Throne Room and the religious one on Thursday the 19th in the cathedral on the Rock. There is one detail of the preparations I love. In February that year the Prince decided the wedding would be filmed, and only once, in colour and CinemaScope. For 1956, that strikes me as a very modern call. The films that really were shot in the Principality, and the To Catch a Thief myth, are in Monaco in films.

Those dates are everywhere, and I wanted to see them in the Principality’s official gazette before passing them on. The Journal de Monaco brought out a special issue on 19 April itself with an account of both days, and a law of 11 April had made the 18th and 19th public holidays. The celebrations started earlier, with Grace’s welcome on the morning of 12 April, and the couple left on honeymoon on the night of the 19th. The marriage produced Caroline, in 1957, Albert, in 1958, and Stéphanie, in 1965. Who they are today and what they do is covered in the Grimaldi family.

Where is Grace Kelly buried?

In the same cathedral where she was married, Our Lady Immaculate, up on the Rock. The parish explains that the princes and princesses rest around the high altar, and the tourist office names Rainier III and Princess Grace among them. It is the stop that gives the trail its meaning, and entry costs nothing unless you arrive during a service.

I would go first thing, because the cathedral opens at 8:15 and that is when fewest people are circling the altar. Cover your shoulders and skip very short shorts, although knee-length ones are allowed. How to find your way round inside, what else to see and when the choir sings are in my guide to Monaco Cathedral.

Grace died in Monaco’s hospital on 14 September 1982, at 22:30. The car accident had happened the day before, at 10:00, in the district of Cap-d’Ail, just over the border in France. The funeral was held in this cathedral on Saturday 18 September, and the official gazette of the 17th had already announced that she would be buried here too.

The Palace where she lived

From the cathedral to Palace Square is a short walk through the lanes of the Rock. This was her home from 1956, and her eldest daughter was born here. You can tour the State Apartments between 30 March and 15 October 2026 for €13, and since 1961 the Main Courtyard has hosted the summer concerts Rainier III founded. The practical side is in the Prince’s Palace.

In summer 2026 the Palace website was advertising an exhibition on the 1956 wedding, with photographs, objects and dresses, from 18 June to 25 September. The site does not give the year, so I cannot promise it is still on or that it will return. If you are travelling in summer, I would check the Palace homepage before going, because the previous summer it had already devoted another show to the Princess, titled Grace #1.

A rose garden that blooms in her name

Rainier III opened the Princess Grace Rose Garden in 1984, two years after her death, in Fontvieille Park, and it turned forty in 2024. The official figures vary slightly from source to source. VisitMonaco mentions more than 450 varieties across about 5,000 m², and the statistics institute 500 varieties and 8,000 rose bushes. Add a 50-metre water wall, and every two years it hosts an international competition for new roses.

For me it is the loveliest stop on the trail, and the calmest. It is open seven days a week, 24 hours a day, is free and is wheelchair accessible. The rules are strict and worth knowing. No picking flowers, no eating or picnics, no animals even on a lead, and tripods need permission. The heliport is only a few dozen metres away, so do not expect perfect silence. The rest of the district is in my guide to Fontvieille.

Coins and stamps in her memory

The piece every euro collector knows is the 2007 €2 coin, issued in July that year for the 25th anniversary of her death. It carries her portrait, signed R. B. Baron beneath the hair, and the European Central Bank gives its mintage as 20,000. You could spend it in any eurozone country, but nobody is going to use it for a coffee. Where the country’s coins are officially sold, and where they are not, is explained in Monaco euro coins.

A few steps from the rose garden is the Museum of Stamps and Coins, on the Terrasses de Fontvieille, which traces Monegasque coinage from 1641 and stamps from 1885. I have not found a list of stamps dedicated to Grace in its official information, so I will not promise you a particular display case. What it does have is the full chronology, and at €3 a ticket I think it is the logical end to the trail.

Her name, all over the city

There is one last way to follow her, and that is to read the signs. The public hospital is the Centre Hospitalier Princesse Grace, the avenue in Larvotto with the Grimaldi Forum and the Japanese Garden is the avenue Princesse Grace, and there is a theatre named after her, the Théâtre Princesse-Grace. Her daughter Caroline has chaired the Princess Grace Foundation since 1982, and Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo, announced in 1985, fulfilled a wish of the Princess. Grace also founded AMADE Mondiale in 1963. If you have time and budget to spare, the Hôtel de Paris has a Diamond Suite bearing her name, an indulgence that suits this trail better than any souvenir from a shop.