Country

Monaco

Monaco may be one of the strangest honey landscapes in Europe because almost the entire story is urban. Beehives sit on rooftops and terraces in one of the most densely built places on Earth, including the roof of the Museum of Stamps and Coins in Fontvieille. Monaco has participated in the “Bee, Sentinel of the Environment” program since 2011 and continues to hold annual APIdays, where honey is actually extracted in public. The resulting Monaco honey is not normally sold commercially; it is distributed in small quantities at educational events, the Prince's Palace and local retirement homes. A local beekeeper described it as unusually aromatic, with tropical-fruit-like notes, probably reflecting Monaco's ornamental Mediterranean vegetation. Drought, storms, Varroa and hornets all put pressure on these tiny urban apiaries. Monaco isn't going to fill Producer Hall—but it gives Atlas something better: honey made inside a city-state.