Prince Albert Ier de Monaco - Monaco-Ville, Monaco
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Albert I (1848 – 1922) was Prince of Monaco and Duke of Valentinois from 10 September 1889 until his death. His larger than life-size statue is erected in the Jardins Saint-Martin, overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.
Waymark Code: WMG73T
Location: Monaco
Date Posted: 01/22/2013
Views: 17
The bronze statue of Prince Albert Ier de Monaco was erected in 1951 in the Saint-Martin Gardens near the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco in Monaco-ville. French sculptor François Cogné depicted the great navigator Prince Albert I at the helm of his ship dressed for the storm. The plinth is approximately three-foot high.
The inscription reads:
SAS Le Prince
ALBERT 1er
1848-1922
Born Albert Honoré Charles Grimaldi on 13 November 1848 in Paris, France, Albert Ier de Monaco was the son of Prince Charles III (1818–1889), and Countess Antoinette de Mérode-Westerloo (1828–1864). As a young man, Prince Albert served in the Spanish Navy, but during the Franco-Prussian War, he joined the French Navy where he was awarded the Legion of Honor.
He was only 22 years old when he began to develop an interest in the then relatively new science of oceanography. After several years of study, Albert showed his ingenuity by devising a number of techniques and instruments used for measurement and exploration. Accompanied by some of the world's leading marine scientists, he recorded numerous oceanographic studies, maps and charts. He then founded what would become the world renowned Oceanographic Museum of Monaco, that included an aquarium, a museum, and a library plus research facilities in Paris. He also discovered the Princess Alice Bank of the Azores in 1896 on an oceanographic survey of the area. In the years 1898–1907 he made four scientific cruises to Svalbard for oceanographical and zoological reconnaissance, and his efforts are honored by the later naming of Albert I Land on Spitsbergen.
In addition to his interest in oceanographic studies, Albert had a keen interest in the origins of man and in Paris, he founded the "Institute for Human Paleontology" that was responsible for a number of archeological digs. The "Grimaldi Man" found in the Baousse-Rousse cave of Menton was named in his honour. Albert's intellectual achievements gained him worldwide recognition and in 1909, the British Academy of Science made him a member.
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