Monaco document photos online

On a January night in 1297, Francesco Grimaldi and his men slipped past the gates of a Genoese fortress disguised as Franciscan friars, daggers hidden beneath their robes, and seized the rock that is now Monaco. More than seven centuries later the same family still reigns, making the Grimaldis one of the longest-ruling dynasties on earth. That single act of cunning founded a state so small it is the world's second-tiniest country, yet so crowded it is the most densely populated nation alive, and so jealous of its identity that the Sovereign Prince still personally signs off on every new citizen.

• Citizenship There is no rulebook for becoming Monegasque: naturalisation is granted at the Sovereign Prince's personal and absolute discretion, and even an applicant who meets every legal requirement has no right to it.
• Documents Citizenship grants are vanishingly rare, with typically fewer than 20 naturalisations approved in a year for a passport guarded as fiercely as Monaco's tiny native population.
• Passport power The Monegasque passport ranks 12th worldwide on the 2025 Henley Passport Index, opening around 177 destinations visa-free despite belonging to a country smaller than New York's Central Park.
• Currency Monaco uses the euro and even mints its own coins bearing Prince Albert II, even though it has never been a member of the European Union or the eurozone.
• Old money Before the euro, the Monegasque franc circulated at par with the French franc and was split into 100 centimes, with Monaco even printing its own emergency banknotes back in 1920.
• Geography At just 2.08 square kilometres Monaco is the second-smallest sovereign state after Vatican City, yet packs in over 18,000 people per square kilometre, the densest population on the planet.
• Taxes Monaco abolished personal income tax for residents in 1869 and never brought it back, though French citizens living there are pointedly required to keep paying France.
• Demographics For the first time ever, the 2023 census showed Monegasques were the largest single nationality at home, at 23.9 percent, finally edging ahead of the long-dominant French community.