Did you know that Prince Albert I discovered a glacier hundred times the size of Monaco?

Monacobreen – formerly known as “Glacier de Monaco” – is an Artic glacier of 200 square kilometres’ (40 km long, 5 km wide, and 60 metres high), located Haakon VII Land, in the island of Spitsbergen, the largest and the only permanently populated island of the Svalbard archipelago in northern Norway.

For its geographical location, the glacier is one the northernmost points on Earth. To be precise, Monacobreen is 3,983 kms from the coasts of the Principality. Furthermore, in numerical terms, considering the current size of Monaco is 2,1 km2, the glacier is approximately 100 times bigger than the Principality. 

Although Prince Albert I has previously explored the Svalbard islands during his first two explorations in 1898 and 1899, the Monacobreen was mentioned on the reports published after the expeditions to the Artic organised by HSH Prince Albert I (1848 – 1922) during the boreal summers of 1906 and 1907. 

In 1905, Norway became an independent sovereign country, a new constitutional monarchy, after the dissolution of the United Kingdom of Sweden and Norway. 

In this context, the visits of Prince Albert I to the island of Spitsbergen can be considered as milestones in the international race that several countries pursued in the conquest of the North and South Poles. 

Prince Albert I exploratory expeditions are well documented. The 1906’s expedition departed from Le Havre on 24 June, visited Scotland, then bordered the coasts of Norway and continued to Spitsbergen islands, returning to Le Havre, almost three months later, on 19 September of the same year. 

During this first trip, Prince Albert I surveyed the Monacobreen and camped in its surroundings. 

The Prince’s 1907 expedition aimed to complete the results from the previous summer. The expedition departed from Le Havre on 16 June and returned on 2 September. 

Oceanographic investigations were carried out as well as biological sampling. Much of the work compiled during these expeditions were included in the Oceanographic Museum inaugurated in Monaco Ville, only three years after, in 1910. 

It is interesting to highlight that the 1906 and 1907 expeditions were conducted on board of the yacht Princess Alice II – named after Prince Albert´s wife, Princess Alice, née Heine -, a ship with capacity to accommodate up to 60 passengers. 

The Prince Alice II was constructed by Laird shipyards of Birkenhead, near Liverpool, and was used on 12 annual expeditions from 1898 to 1910. According to official sources, in May 1912, the yacht was sold to an Englishman. 

During his life, Prince Albert I showed a keen interest in environmental protection, especially in Svalbard. He actively supported the 1909 and 1910 expeditions to Svalbard organised by the Norwegian military, Gunna Isachsen (1868 – 1939). These explorations led to the foundation of the predecessors of today´s Norwegian Polar Institute, one of the most prestigious institutions in the field worldwide. 

Recently, on 22 June 2022, in Oslo, it was inaugurated at the FRAM Museum, the exposition “Sailing the Sea of Science”, in honour to the explorations of Prince Albert I to Svalbard. The exposition was part of the commemorations of the centennial of the death of Prince Albert I. His great-grandson, Prince Albert II, and his family visited the exposition together with HRH Prince Haakon, the Crown Prince of Norway.  

In recent decades, Monacobreen has been subject of environmental studies trying to determine the consequences of climate change in the North Polo. Among those institutions studying the evolution of the glacier we can mention European Geoscience Union with headquarters in Munich, the American Geophysical Union with headquarters in Washington.

Article by Juan Dávila y Verdin, FRSA (Argentina, 1984) – Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. MBA alumni from the International University of Monaco. BA (Hons.) in Global Politics and International Relations, Birkbeck College, University of London. Currently part of the International Law and Diplomacy program organised by the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) and the University for Peace (UPEACE) – UN Mandated. His research “National identities and cultural resilience in the European microstates in the twenty-first century: the current challenges in Liechtenstein, Monaco and San Marino. A contribution to the study of international relations.” is part of MONARCHÉO, the exposition organised by the Museum of Prehistoric Anthropology of Monaco.