When we first visited Marseille’s museum of the city’s history, we found it fascinating; when we heard it had expanded and improved as part of last year’s Capital of Culture celebration, we knew we’d be back.
Model at top shows what remains above looked like as a boat. This one shows examples of changing shipbuilding techniques.
This week we returned, and found that the museum is even better than before—but we’ll have to return again, because due to “technical problems” the second floor, housing the last 600 years, is closed for a while. Free admission, though, until the problems are fixed.
History museums can play a variety of roles; we’ve been to some that are about little more than how much better things were back then, or how great the heroes or leaders were, etc. But the best ones, like this one, attempt to explain how the things we can see came about, how the circumstances represented by the objects on view connect to our lives and the past we know about.
Marseille’s museum combines location (it’s located in a shopping center whose construction revealed remains of ancient life in Marseille) with scholarship and showmanship to provide an era-by-era understanding of how events in Marseille and around it shaped the city we know today.
Starting with the area’s settlement by Greek sailors around 600 BC, each era is represented by objects and multi-media explanations; each has narratives which combine the words of representatives of that time and modern scholars, with amusing animations. The presentations are all in French, but almost all are also on the available audioguide.
Two of the museum’s star attractions are based on its location. When the shopping center it’s located in was under construction in 1967, workers found unexpected objects, which turned out to be ancient Greek and Roman ships that had been used for landfill in an area that was formerly part of the port, and the buildings surrounding it.
After a multi-year excavation and preservation effort, 10000 sq meters of the site was preserved as a Garden of Remains (Jardin des Vestiges) and the painstakingly excavated and preserved remnants of the boats—some surprisingly complete—became star exhibits.
Lead anchor from a Roman ship
The boats are closely connected to Marseille’s development; it was founded around 600 BC by sailors from Greece whose town was devastated in war; their earliest occupation in the area was trading Greek products to the local Celtic inhabitants and carrying local produce in trade around the Mediterranean.
Its importance for trading made it an important city in Roman times as well, and in every era since; although the Old Port became too small for modern ships in the 19th century, the city’s newer docks north of it are still one of the busiest ports in France.
The boat exhibits are used to illustrate a number of points: the fact that Marseille, with its trade, has served for endless centuries as a link between northern Europe and the Mediterranean, and that the influences of different areas and developing technology are visible in the boats themselves. The earliest ones were made by lacing planks together and tying them to beams; later ones used mortise-and-tenon wood joints, but still, for a time, relied on the old way for any repairs.
Interactive exhibit allows children to work with models and understand changes in shipbuilding techniques
Other parts of the museum show the effect on the city of Roman rule, the coming of Christianity, the middle ages and more, and how they are reflected in the city’s building and culture, including changing funeral rites.
Model shows different types of funeral arrangements over Green and Roman times and into early Christianity
It’s a great museum for children as well; not only are the narrations clear and understandable but there are also stations for hands-on activities and demonstrations for children, including ancient games as well as hands-on activities to illustrate techniques.
It’s easy to find the museum; it’s just above the Vieux Port, center of Marseille’s tourism, and its entrance is right in the major shopping center. It’s open from 10-6 except Mondays. It’s inthe Centre Bourse at 2 Rue Henri Barbusse, phone : +33 4 91 55 36 00, Admission is 5 Euros; 3 for youth and seniors.
More pictures below; I hope you enjoy them…and when it’s your turn to visit, I hope you won’t run into this one, announcing the interruption in history…
