The city site

Marseille lies in a sheltered depression surrounded by hills, which have inhibited the development of suburbs. The Old Port is a natural harbor and one of the most westerly of the inlets along the rocky coastline characteristic of the northeastern Mediterranean; farther west, beyond a large tidal lake called the Berre Lagoon (Étang de Berre), the shoreline flattens out. There the sandy dunes of the Gulf of Fos and the Camargue region in the Rhône’s delta were less attractive to early mariners and were only later seen as offering possibilities for development.

Marseille’s natural port was extended in Roman times and again from the 16th century onward to accommodate increased traffic and larger ships. By the 19th century the Old Port was insufficient. An artificial basin at La Joliette, built on the bay just outside of the Old Port, began operation in the mid-1840s, and five additional basins were subsequently built along a five-mile stretch of the bay. Further expansion was also undertaken to the west of the city, with the creation in 1863 of Port-Saint-Louis-du-Rhône. Eventually, in 1965, work began on the development of the port complex at Fos-sur-Mer. The port opened in 1968, and work on the accompanying industrial estate continued into the 1970s.

Marseille’s hinterland consists of a chain of mountains, known as the Étoile Chain, which leads northward toward Aix-en-Provence (formerly Marseille’s rival as capital of the region) and to Mount Sainte-Victoire. The slopes around Aix are devoted to vineyards, which produce the wines of the Côtes de Provence (“Hills of Provence”). The Étoile Chain has put a limit on the northward expansion of the city, with the result that development has “leapfrogged” this natural barrier in favor of the eastern shores of the Berre Lagoon, around the suburbs of Marignane and Vitrolles. The eastern boundaries of the city have also been extended outward by the pressures of urban growth, particularly along the line of the Huveaune valley.

Climate

The climate of Marseille is not typical of the Mediterranean region as a whole. The lowest rainfall and highest temperatures are found in the hot, dry months of summer, but rainfall reaches a peak in spring and autumn, rather than in winter. The coldest months are December and January, when there is some frost, but otherwise the winter is mild. During the summer months the temperature rises to levels that would be unpleasant were it not for the sea breeze. In winter, Marseille is particularly subject to the dry, cold northwest wind known as the Mistral, which blows down the Rhône Valley, at times with considerable force.

The city layout

The popular area of Marseille was the seedy district, north of the Old Port, known as the Panier, which was destroyed in 1943. The more prosperous middle-class districts developed in the 19th century to the south around the rue Paradis and the avenue du Prado. The period following World War II saw various schemes to develop the city, including the Unité d’Habitation, an 18-story residential block that expressed the architect Le Corbusier’s ideal of urban family lodging. The block was intended, when completed in 1952, to be one of six such units; it is now surrounded by luxury apartment buildings. Less attractive are the high-rise, working-class housing blocks developed after 1960, which have come to house a large number of immigrant families. Since the 1970s the municipal authorities have undertaken a massive program of rebuilding in various parts of the city, restoring some of the Panier and turning the district around the Old Port into a largely pedestrian area. The area to the north of the Old Port, extending eastward toward the main railway station (Gare Saint-Charles), is the focus of a major program of urban renewal known as the Euroméditerranée, designed to refurbish existing buildings, provide new housing and office floor space, and create a new university site.

From the historic center of Marseille at the Old Port, the thoroughfare of La Canebière climbs eastward up the hill; its name is a corruption of a Latin word for hemp, recalling Marseille’s importance as a source of hemp and supplier of hemp rope in the Middle Ages. Thronged by people from around the world, La Canebière is the best-known commercial street in Marseille. Its starting point is marked by one of the most imposing public buildings in the city, the Bourse, which houses the Chamber of Commerce and a maritime museum.

Behind the Bourse, building operations in 1967 for a new retail and office complex uncovered a section of the Hellenistic ramparts of Massalia. Excavated by archaeologists, the site, dating from the 3rd and 2nd centuries bce, was found to consist of walls and towers and three sections of Roman road. The ancient port was also excavated. Nearby, close to City Hall on the edge of the port, is the Museum of Roman Warehouses (Musée des Docks Romains), which displays storage jars and other remains of commerce under Roman domination and traces the subsequent history of the port.

The port entrance is guarded by the Fort Saint-Jean, a 13th-century command post of the Knights Hospitaller of St. John of Jerusalem; some ruins remain, along with a tower built in the mid-15th century by René I of Provence. The extant fortress, dating from the 17th century, was part of a nationwide system of defenses. The other side of the harbor entrance is occupied by Fort Saint-Nicolas. In the harbor itself lie the Frioul Islands, on which the city has developed a large center for water sports. Between these islands and the mainland is the Château d’If, a fortified island where Alexandre Dumas’s fictional count of Monte Cristo and large numbers of all-too-real political prisoners were incarcerated.

Other historic buildings are located around the Old Port. In the Place de la Major, the old cathedral of la Major, built on the ruins of a temple of Diana, dates from the 11th century; it was partially dismantled to make way for the eight-domed structure that in 1852 replaced it as the city’s cathedral. The dome and supporting arches of the old cathedral are fine examples of Provençal Romanesque stonemasonry.

Nearby is the Old Charity Hospital (Hospice de la Vieille Charité), built between 1660 and 1750. The interior courtyard surrounds a chapel by Pierre Puget, regarded as the most powerful of French Baroque sculptors. Close by is the Hôtel Dieu, the oldest hospital in the city, built at the end of the 16th century. The principal building, by Jules Hardouin-Mansart, was erected 200 years later and still serves its original function. Almost next door, the bell tower of the vanished church of Accoules, a 14th-century spire mounted on a 12th-century tower, marks the center of Old Marseille.

On the opposite side of the port stands the crenellated, square-towered basilica of Saint-Victor, dating from the 11th to the 14th century; it once was attached to an abbey founded about 413 by St. John Cassian to commemorate a 3rd-century martyr and patron saint of sailors and millers. When Saint-Victor was built, the abbey was a temporal power of considerable extent, ruling properties in Spain, Sardinia, and the hinterlands of France.

High on the hill over the south side of the Old Port stands the celebrated Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde, a sanctuary honored from the 8th century. Its present structure was built in 1853–64; its steeple, crowned by a 30-foot (nine-meter) gilded statue of the Virgin, rises 150 feet over the hillside.