It's a city.
Of spies.
These locations tend to occur in multi-polar 'verses (that is with two or more power blocs) and are either neutral locations or the capital cities of the powers themselves.
Examples:
Comic Books
- One of the Marvelman/Miracleman comics ("Spy Story", #21 of the revived series, 1991, by Neil Gaiman) was about a woman living in a city of spies. Turns out all the members of the intelligence agencies of the world who couldn't adjust to the New World Order were put into one big city to intrigue their little hearts out.
Film
Literature
- Boktor (capital of Drasnia) and Mal Zeth (capital of the Mallorean Empire) in The Belgariad. Drasnia tops it all, being a country of spies. Spies are its chief export (that and reindeer).
Live Action TV
- If you were to believe Burn Notice, Miami is full of spies and retired spies.
- Then again, the city attracts a lot of retiring people and is pretty close to Cuba.
Real Life
- Berlin (Cold War)
- Lampshaded in all conceivable versions of Casino Royale by Bond girl Vesper Lind.
- Lisbon (World War Two)
- Washington DC (Cold War, present)
- The opening video on the National Spy Museum tour estimates that DC has more spies per capita than any other city on the planet.
- Which causes problems when selecting areas for dead drops or covert meetings between spies and their handlers. Because thousands of spies have been working in cities like Washington and Moscow for over half a century, there's very few 'ideal' locations that haven't been used before. In theory a security service could stake out these places permanently and have a good chance of catching a spy in the act.
- Moscow (same)
- Casablanca and Tangiers (World War Two)
- Istanbul
- Istanbul has some claim to be the Trope Namer. It is after all a very "Byzantine" city.
- Helsinki (Cold War): Because it was close to the Soviet Union, largely sympathetic to the West, but neutral. The Finns were quite aware of their situation, practicing a policy of "bowing to the East in such a way that it could not be seen as mooning the West."
- Tallinn, Estonia (Today): I know, I was surprised too. It's because it was once part of the Soviet Union, but is now firmly in the Western camp (part of the EU and NATO).
Tabletop Games
- The planet Arden in Traveller
- Top Secret, adventure "Operation: Sprechenhaltestelle''. The setting is a small neutral European town full of spies.
- Al Amarja, the Mediterranean Banana Republic Over The Edge is based in, is crammed to the rafters with weirdness of every description. The multiple espionage agencies fighting each other in the back alleys is one of the most mundane aspects of the setting.
-
Paranoia There are no spies in Alpha Complex. Alpha Complex is a happy place.
- Columbia in Crimson Skies.
- The 'newly created international city of Espiona' in the board game Spy Ring.
- Krakow in Twilight 2000.
Western Animation
- Pottsylvania from Rocky And Bullwinkle is shown to be a whole country of spies in the few times it is shown.
Anime
- Roanapur, in Black Lagoon, has a fair number of spies running around in addition to all the criminals.
