Early in 1875, Pope Pius IX gave Prince Charles III a stone from the catacombs of Saint Callixtus in Rome, believed to be the first Roman Catholic cemetery. The stone was to be the first laid in the construction of Monaco’s new cathedral, with Saint Nicholas’ Church having become too small for a Principality that His Holiness had made a diocese in its own right, independent from Nice. The architect chosen to oversee the new building’s construction was Charles Lenormand. Work was completed in 1903. The cathedral, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary under the venerated title of the Immaculate Conception, stands majestically atop a staircase made of white La Turbie stone, its façade a Byzantine-style combination of arcades, colonnades, recesses and projecting features.
