Historic Cities · France

Marseille through the ages

Marseille is a city in southern France, the prefecture of the department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the Provence region, it is located on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, near the mouth of the Rhône river.

100 BC · greek colony harbour 1750 · levant trade harbour

Marseille in 100 BC

Greek Massalia

Massalia in 100 BC is a thriving Phocaean trading colony crowned by temples and a theatre on its northern hills and ringed by pink stone ramparts around the Lacydon harbour. This walk moves from the Gulf of Lion into the Lacydon basin, along busy quays and shipyards, past markets and artisans, finishing on the hill that watches the sea lanes to Ionia and the Rhone.

Low, sunbaked houses and flat-tiled roofs cluster around a narrow inlet — the Lacydon — whose quays are stacked with amphorae and ringed by shipsheds and timber masts. Pink Cassis limestone ramparts, punctuated by square towers, rise above wooden porches; columned temples and a cut‑into‑slope theatre crown the northern hills. The harbour gleams with oiled hemp, sailcloth and cedar hulls, and the air carries salt, pine resin and wine‑must.

The walk — 22 streets, squares and views

Gulf of Lion Approach → Rhone Delta → Lacydon Entrance → Lacydon Quays → Shipsheds (Neosoikoi) → Ramparts Gate → Agora (Harbour Market) → Potters' Quarter → Fish Market → Wine Merchants' Quay → …

Step inside — 13 interiors

Merchant's Courtyard House · Neosoikoi Slipway Hall · Gate Tower Guardroom · Stoa of the Agora · Potter's Workshop · Fishmongers' Exchange Hall · Wine Merchant's Counting-room · Great Amphora Repository · Main Shipwright's Shed · Cella of Artemis · Cella of Apollo · Skene and Orchestra · Arsenal Storehall

Walk Marseille in 100 BC →35 scenes · 525 Clan Coins

Planned from the Wikipedia record: Massalia.

Marseille in 1750

Marseille of the Levant Trade

This walk visits Marseille at the height of its 18th‑century Mediterranean trade: the Vieux‑Port crowded with Levantine and Mediterranean masts, the forts guarding the harbour mouth, and workshops of soap and sugar behind the quays. You will move from the bay into the heart of the port, through the Canebière and Le Panier, and finish high above the city at the little chapel of Notre‑Dame de la Garde.

In 1750 Marseille is a working Mediterranean port: a low, dense skyline of tiled roofs and ochre stone, punctured by masts packed rail to rail in the Vieux‑Port and the squat profiles of seventeenth‑century forts. Quays sit close to narrow streets and newly cut promenades; smoke rises from boiling cauldrons at soap works and chimneys of small sugar refineries. Light is hard, blue and sunlit in the harbour, warm and dusty in the alleys.

The walk — 21 streets, squares and views

Château d'If and Bay → Harbour Mouth with Forts → Fort Saint‑Jean → Fort Saint‑Nicolas → Vieux‑Port → La Loge Quay → La Lenche (Fishmarket) → Hôtel de Ville → The Arsenal → Corderie (Ropeworks) → …

Step inside — 12 interiors

Fort Guardroom · Fishmongers' Arcade · Chamber of Maritime Commerce · Shipwrights' Great Shed · Ropewalk Gallery · Boiling House · Sugar Boiling House · Quarantine Ward · Merchant Counting House · Oil Merchants' Warehouse · Domed Chapel · Hôtel‑Dieu Ward

Walk Marseille in 1750 →33 scenes · 495 Clan Coins

Planned from the Wikipedia record: History of Marseille.

In this city