We got up refreshed and mom got a bite to eat before we set out to see one of the two things we’d planned on doing while in Monaco. The first…visit the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco!
Wow! Even from the outside it’s impressive…
But when you walk in you’re graced with a magnificence nearly beyond description.
This museum, often called the “Temple of the Sea,” was first opened in March of 1910, by Prince Albert I. The museum was built to showcase the scientific collections gathered by the Prince during his 28 oceanographic expeditions between 1885 and 1915.
The idea for a permanent biology laboratory and exhibition space matured in Prince Albert I following the successful presentation of his scientific collections at the 1889 Paris World’s Fair. The first stone was laid on April 25, 1899, and the Oceanographic Institute was formally founded as a public utility in 1906.
Prince Albert I (Founder): Known as the “navigator prince,” personally directed 3,698 operations at sea. More than half of the museum’s natural history collection consists of specimens he collected during his campaigns. Jacques-Yves Cousteau (Director 1957–1988), served as director for 31 years.Below are just a very few of the things we saw and I’m putting here…but there was so much more. Initially, as you saw above you enter a great hall that has a number of similar sized rooms where they hold international seminars. But when you start down the stairs into where the aquarium resides, you’re drawn into the realm of the sea by the lights and reflections opening up before you…
The first thing you see is an aquarium that was nearly 18-20 foot high by 24 feet wide and who knows the third dimension was. And by watching one of the two divers cleaning a glass partition, you realize there was not one but two aquariums that appeared as one.
They even had a cylindrical aquarium with water swirling within it that had the stingless jellyfish from Palau…
There were fish, mollusks, crustaceans, jellyfish, corals, sea anemones, starfish, sea urchins, sea cucumbers, sponges, sea turtles, sea snakes, and so much more. Here’s just a few of what we saw…
After the aquarium we were hungry and found a rrestauranr near the marina…unfortunately for our view, they were building stands & bleachers for people to watch the upcoming Formula1 races about to be run in Monaco. But we had a great lunch & a couple of servers from Italy & not Monaco.
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