Exotic Garden: the largest succulent rock garden in the world

Built on a cliff side, the Exotic Garden offers a breathtaking view over the Principality of Monaco. It is home to a thousand cacti and other succulent plants that come in all manner of strange-looking shapes.

The history of the Exotic Garden in Monaco dates back to the early nineteenth century, when a Monegasque gardener, Augustin Gastaud, planted succulents in the Saint-Martin gardens on the Rocher, not far from the Oceanographic Museum. Prince Albert I then decided to create a garden devoted to these succulents, which were little known at the time.

In the 1960s, a Botanic Centre was added to the Exotic Garden. The centre’s greenhouses are home to the most significant collections of cacti and succulent plants in the world. The centre was moved in October 2017, into a glass and iron building conceived by renowned international architect Rudy Ricciotti. The new building sits opposite the Exotic Garden.

Constructed over three levels, with 900 square metres of greenhouses and 1,000 square metres of sheds, the building houses some 10,500 plants. It has two objectives: to preserve a reference collection of rare and endangered cacti and other succulents (85% of the plants preserved by the Botanic Centre are protected species), and to cultivate the plants destined to be replanted in the Exotic Garden.