Monaco · MC

Princess Grace Japanese Garden

Tucked just steps from the Mediterranean on Avenue Princesse Grace in Monaco's Larvotto quarter, the Princess Grace Japanese Garden is a 7,000-square-metre sanctuary of Zen design in the heart of the Principality. Conceived by Prince Rainier III and created by award-winning landscape architect Yasuo Beppu, it opened in 1994 after a Shinto priest blessed the site in 1992. The garden is a stylised miniature of nature's grandest scenes—mountain, waterfall, beach, lake, and stream—compressed into an asymmetrical layout that follows the strictest principles of Japanese garden philosophy. Koi glide beneath lotus blossoms in a 1,100-square-metre pond; weathered stone lanterns and timber bridges punctuate winding paths; and a tea house anchors the composition.