Prepare the scarves! This is Tiktok’s new trend with ‘My Tears Ricochet’ by Taylor Swift

It was just over noon in Mareterra, the newest neighborhood of Monaco, and a crowd was crowded on the Marlow terrace, the first British haute cuisine restaurant in the Principality.

Near there, the office workers rested on the wide steps next to the water in their lunch hour. The Paseo Príncipe Jacques, the 800 -meter pedestrian catwalk that surrounds the maritime perimeter of Mareterra, was busy with corridors and parents pushing strollers for the concrete pavement.

This neighborhood, a project of 2,000 million euros (about US $ 2,260 million) that opened in December 2024, is Monaco’s last response to a question that has been raised for more than 150 years: how to expand when it has already been left without land?

I walked along the promenade and bent down a door that gave the path, entering a dark concrete antechamber. Another door was leading the hollow of one of the 18 drawers, the 10,000 -tons cameras and 26 meters high that settle next to the other as gigantic Lego pieces in the seabed to create the maritime infrastructure of the new neighborhood.

I looked over a thick railing that separated me from the fall to the sea. The Mediterranean emerged as if it caught my attention, while the reinforced concrete chamber remained silent and motionless, absorbing the impact of waves.

The upper part of each drawer, known as Jarlan Chamber, is above the flotation line to allow water flow through narrow vertical openings on the outer side. The design is designed to act as a breakwater that absorbs and disperses the energy of the waves.

“When the sun shines through the openings of the Jarlan Chamber in the morning, the space acquires a slightly blue tone,” he said, explaining the choice of name.

And I would probably feel a bit uncomfortable being alone in that dark space. However, it has quickly become one of the most unusual and less striking places of the Mediterranean Principality, attracting a constant flow of people like me, curious to see between the reasons the technical ingenuity that implies recovering land of the sea.

Land recovery is not new in Monaco, the second smallest country in the world after the city of the Vatican, where 38,000 inhabitants are crowded in a territory of just over 22 km².

While a great proportion of them are millionaires, they continue to live in the most densely populated country in the world.

Cornered by France, Monaco’s usual solution to its space problem is to enter the water. Since 1907, 25% of the Monegasco territory has earned the sea, including the beach area, Le Larvotto, the Hercules port -reflected of Superyates -and the Fontvieille neighborhood, west of the Palace of the Prince of Monaco.

If Rainiero III, who came to power in 1949, forged the reputation of being “the constructor prince”, his son, the current sovereign Alberto II, the tradition continues. It was in 2013 when he announced his plans to recover these six hectares off the coast, near Larvotto, at the eastern end of Monaco, later baptizing them as Mareterra to reflect his connection with the sea and the earth.

The neighborhood has increased the territory of the Principality by 3% and includes two blocks of residential apartments (including one designed by the famous Italian architect Renzo Piano), 10 villas and four townhouses, a small sports port, 14 commercial premises and three hectares of public space.

Mareterra fits as the piece that was missing in a puzzle in this section of the Monegasco coast. It is located next to the Grimaldi forum, a space for events that often houses itinerant art and show exhibitions, and the Japanese garden, planted in 1994 with Mediterranean pines, grenades and olive trees according to the principles of the Zen design.

Both sites have been able to grow thanks to the extension.

In line with the prince’s commitment to achieve carbon neutrality in the Principality by 2050, Mareterra has also been conceived as the greenest corner of Monaco.

Nine thousand square meters of solar panels, 200 load stations for electric vehicles and 800 trees are among the ecological initiatives of the district.

Just at the entrance of the blue cave, a five -minute video is reproduced in loop that presents how the project approached the inevitable marine disturbance that involves this type of construction.

The drawers also play a fundamental role; Reliefs and slots were molded in its construction to encourage the colonization of marine flora and fauna.

Some segments were even sanded by hand to add texture. Jarlan’s cameras have an additional advantage: they recreate shallow areas where fish can enter and leave quickly.

However, the most delicate challenge consisted of transplanting 384m² of Oceanica Posidoniaan endemic sea meadow that plays a fundamental role in the Mediterranean ecosystem and is protected by the legislation of the European Union (EU).

A pioneer technique used a modified tree shovel to extract plants from Posidonia and place them in baskets that could later be replanting 200m away, in the Protected Marine area of ​​Larvotto.

“We usually transport the plants of Posidonia one by one, ”explained Sylvie Gobert, oceanologist at the University of Lieja (Belgium), who collaborated in the project.” The really innovative thing is that we take the Posidoniatogether with all its root ecosystem and approximately one cubic meter of sediment. ”

Yes Posidonia Finally he has settled in his new home, he has also done Monaco in Mareterra. When observing the area, I realized the speed with which the blue and gray soft of Le Renzo, the striking piano residential block that rises as a sentry on the neighborhood, have become a family part of the local landscape.

Near there, Quatre Lances, a sculpture by American artist Alexander Calder who was bought by Prince Alberto’s mother, Grace Kelly, in the 1960s and had been languishing stored, has become a meeting point to which people gravitate.

A small natural walk, La Pinède, serpentes through a rocky garden planted with carrascos and pine pines umbrella, the same species to find if you were walking through the Provencal countryside.

A water source gently dripped between bird nests and insect hotels installed between Mediterranean weeds.

These are not the striking attractions for which Monaco is famous, such as El Dorado Casino de Montecarlo. It is an area that has been designed for the locals, with only a handful of stores and restaurants, although visitors come to enjoy the quiet gardens, the sea views and the ingenuity that made possible mareterra.

Despite his ecological ambitions, Mareterra raises questions about his need. Although it is presented as Monaco’s solution to its housing problems, it is speculated that the prices of the properties start from the US $ 100,000 euros (about US $ 112,000) per square meter, which makes it one of the most expensive residential areas in the world.

In addition, none of the new residences have been reserved for Monegascos, which are almost 10,000 and have the right to social housing.

However, in Monaco they are sure that Mareterra is not the end of their growth history.

“For Prince Alberto, if there is no construction, the country is paralyzed,” said Nancy Heslin, co -founder of Carob Tree Publishing, the first Monegasque publishing house composed exclusively of women, who has interviewed the Prince several times.

“The country will always seek to continue expanding its territory,” he said.

“As long as you have the desire and budget to expand the limits of the possible, both at a technological and ecological scale, the Principality will be an example to follow for other coastal cities, as a laboratory of this type of innovation,” said Levy-Saussan,

“Monaco is a small country that has achieved extraordinary things.”

Subscribe here To our new newsletter to receive a selection of the best content of the week every Friday.

And remember that you can receive notifications in our app. Download the latest version and act.