Basilique Saint-Michel Archange

The Basilica of St. Michael the Archangel was built according to the wishes of Prince Honoré II of Monaco. He wanted a "big and beautiful church to Menton" and made this wish by the Genoese architect Laurent Lavagna.

Construction began May 27, 1619, but the real work only began in 1639. In 1653 the monument was officially over and under the cult of Saint Michael the Archangel. It is May 8, 1675 that the bishop of Ventimiglia dedicated this church while the prince Ludwig I was there. A bell tower 53 meters high was built in 1701 by architect Emmanuel Monaco Cantone. It was not until 1819 that the facade was completed in the style of the seventeenth century.

Originally this church building was a church, and do not acquire the title of Basilica in March 1999, following a decree of Pope John Paul II to reward the church Menton for its dynamism. In 2006, the square was renovated of 170m ² with no less than 250,000 pebbles! It took a year of work to meet the methods implemented in the eighteenth century is taken into account to implement the central motif.

This baroque church welcomes every year more than 100,000 tourists who come to admire its facade, which restored its square are represented the arms of the Grimaldi and its impressive ramp. Finally, in summer, at least in August, the front of the Basilica hosts the Classical Music Festival of Menton.