Mareterra, Monaco's newest district and how to walk it for free

Mareterra is the newest thing Monaco has, and hardly any guidebook covers it yet. It’s a district raised on the sea, off the stretch of coast between the Grimaldi Forum and Larvotto, and the Prince inaugurated it in December 2024. Much of it is residential and private, but its seafront is public, free and a real pleasure to walk. To me it’s the best addition the country has made for anyone exploring on foot.

What is Mareterra, and where do you find it?

It’s an extension of Monaco out over the Mediterranean. The developer says it lengthens the coastline between the Grimaldi Forum and the tunnel used by Formula 1, on the country’s eastern side, between Monte-Carlo and Larvotto beach. The project used to be known as the Anse du Portier.

Work began in the water. The first caisson of the sea wall was set in place on 25 July 2018, and the district was inaugurated on 4 December 2024, with Prince Albert II, Princess Charlène and their children, nine years after the concession contract was signed. That day plaques were unveiled for Place Princesse Gabriella, the Esplanade and Promenade Prince Jacques and a pool named after Princess Charlène.

It isn’t the first time Monaco has done this. Larvotto and Fontvieille are reclaimed land too, as I explain at more length in the Fontvieille district and in Monaco facts.

The promenade linking the harbour and the beach

What really matters to a visitor is the Promenade Prince Jacques, 600 metres by the sea from the marina to the Grimaldi Forum. It’s part of the route linking Port Hercule with Larvotto, and Visit Monaco points out that the district is almost entirely car-free, with wide walkways. There are 19,000 m² of pedestrian areas.

My advice is to treat it as a route, not a destination. Heading from the harbour to the beach, dropping down to the sea and following the promenade spares you hills and traffic, and you reach the sand with the Mediterranean at your side. What awaits at the end is in Monaco’s beaches.

A Calder, a pine wood and a small marina

The natural stop is Place Princesse Gabriella, with a pool reflecting Quatre lances, an Alexander Calder sculpture, and umbrella pines to sit under. A little further on, on a slope, there’s a small pine wood with a path through Mediterranean plants. I enjoy walking through a planted wood where, less than ten years ago, there was only water.

Around the Petit Portier, a small marina, are the restaurants, which Visit Monaco sums up like this. 99 Sushi Bar serves Japanese food, Marco Italian seafood and Zéphyr looks to the Aegean, and on the square is SBM’s Marlow, which has a British feel to it. Marlow does have a published menu, from June 2026, charging €4 to €4.50 for pastries and €16 to €35 for a sandwich. Cheaper options are ranked by budget on my where to eat in Monaco page.

Big-name architecture, seen from outside

Mareterra is above all a residential district, with apartment blocks, villas and townhouses. They’re designed by Denis Valode and Jean Pistre, Renzo Piano, Tadao Ando and Norman Foster, with gardens by landscape architect Michel Desvigne. The building that turns most heads is Le Renzo, set like a ship facing the sea. These are private homes, so you enjoy the architecture from the promenade, and I wouldn’t try to go beyond the public areas.

What you don’t see, under the water and on the roofs

The district follows the French High Environmental Quality standard. It has 9,000 m² of solar panels covering about 40% of its energy, heating and cooling from heat pumps drawing on seawater, and a 600 m³ rainwater tank for watering the gardens. Altogether there are 800 trees and 27,000 m² of gardens.

The part I like best is underwater. The sea-wall caissons were built in Marseille with textured surfaces and panels designed to be colonised by algae and small fish, because the works sit between two marine reserves, Spélugues and Larvotto. One figure you’ll see on plenty of websites, a total area of about 6 hectares, only comes from the press, so I don’t take it as official.

How to fit it into your visit

I’d slot it into the route from the Casino to the beach. You walk down from the Monte-Carlo district to the sea, cross Mareterra and finish at Larvotto, with the Japanese Garden, free and very close by, as a detour. It’s a gentle hour’s walk that costs nothing and shows you a Monaco very different from the Rock. If you’d like to sleep at that end with the beach out front, look at Le Méridien Beach Plaza, in Larvotto.