The Prince’s Palace of Monaco has opened a major exhibition dedicated to the 1956 marriage of Prince Rainier III and Grace Kelly, marking the 70th anniversary of a week of celebrations that drew an audience of 30 million television viewers and reshaped Monaco’s place in the world.
Titled ‘The Wedding of the Century’, the exhibition runs in the State Apartments of the Prince’s Palace from 18 June to 25 September 2026. It brings together photographs, film footage, jewellery, gowns, wedding gifts, and previously unseen archival material to reconstruct the eight days of festivities that began with Grace Kelly’s arrival aboard the SS Constitution on 12 April 1956 and concluded with the princely couple’s departure for their honeymoon on 19 April.
Eight days, ten rooms
The exhibition is arranged across the Palace’s historic rooms, each dedicated to a different aspect of the celebrations. Visitors move through spaces covering Grace Kelly’s arrival in Monaco, the principal figures and supporting cast of the wedding party, the civil ceremony in the Throne Room, the religious wedding at Monaco Cathedral, and the popular festivities staged for the Monegasque public across three evenings.
The Chambre de Bellérophon introduces the key protagonists — among them Grace Kelly’s father John B. Kelly, a three-time Olympic rowing gold medallist, and Prince Rainier III’s mother Princess Charlotte, who had renounced her place in the order of succession in favour of her son in 1944.
The wedding’s musical dimension is also explored: Nadia Boulanger, Master of the Chapel at the Palace since 1947, directed the musical programme for the religious ceremony, drawing exclusively from the early music repertoire. Léo Ferré, who had grown up in Monaco and sung in the cathedral choir as a child, wrote to the Prince in January 1956 offering to compose a mass — a gesture the Sovereign accepted, before ultimately deferring to Boulanger’s programme.
Gowns and jewels
The exhibition gives considerable attention to the question of dress. Helen Rose, head costume designer at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer — the studio to which Grace Kelly was contracted — designed both the wedding gown worn for the religious ceremony and the champagne-coloured silk taffeta suit worn at the civil wedding on 18 April. Edith Head, who had dressed Grace Kelly across four Paramount productions, had hoped to design the wedding dress and produced several sketches, but the commission went elsewhere. She was ultimately responsible for the suit Grace Kelly wore when the couple departed for their honeymoon.
For the gala evening at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo on 18 April, Grace Kelly wore a gown by the House of Lanvin, designed by Antonio Castillo and embroidered with more than 600,000 mother-of-pearl sequins and beads — a process requiring some 600 hours of hand embroidery.
The exhibition also traces the jewellery gifted to the new Princess. Monaco’s National Council and Council of the Commune jointly selected a diamond rivière necklace of more than 64 carats by Cartier and a diamond bracelet by Van Cleef & Arpels, presented on behalf of the Monegasque people. The Société des Bains de Mer gave a Cartier parure of ruby clip brooches that could be worn on a diamond necklace or mounted as a tiara.
Gifts, media, and myth
The Antichambre Royale and Chambre Royale sections display a selection of the couple’s wedding gifts, which ranged from a Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud from the Monegasque people, to a sea scooter from Commander Jacques-Yves Cousteau — then director of the Oceanographic Museum — and two beavers named Pierre and Pierrette from Granby Zoo in Quebec.
A dedicated section in the Bibliothèque examines the extraordinary media operation that surrounded the event. Some 1,800 journalists and photographers travelled to Monaco for the ceremonies, and a press centre was established on the Rock to accommodate them. The colour documentary ‘Le Mariage de Monaco’, filmed in part by a young Jacques Demy as technical adviser to director Jean Masson, was released in French cinemas on 2 May 1956.
The current exhibition was curated by Thomas Fouilleron and Vincent Vatrican, with scenography by Marine Hayek and Antoine Loudot of Bureau Walter.
‘The Wedding of the Century’ is open daily in the State Apartments of the Prince’s Palace. Opening hours are 10am to 6pm in June and September, and 10am to 7pm in July and August. Tickets and further information are available at visitepalaisdemonaco.com.
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All photos credit: Cassandra Tanti, Monaco Life