Saint Devote Chapel
Saint Devote is the patron saint of the Grimaldi family and every January 27th, the Principality celebrates St. Devote's Day as a national holiday. According to legend, during the Roman era a young Corsican Christian named Devote was executed and her body placed in a boat for Africa. The boat drifted off course and ran aground on the coast of modern-day Monaco, where a state was founded in her honor. The Chapel, originally built in the 11th century, is at the site where, in the 4th century, the boat with St. Devote's body landed. At the end of the 19th century, the chapel was restored, enlarged and given a new, monumental façade. Every January 26th, a boat is burnt on its square at nightfall in the presence of the royal family.
