Marseille, 2600 years of History

The site is known to be more than 27,000 years old since prehistoric wall paintings were recently discovered in a cave of the "Calanques" creeks.

But human settlement developed around the Old Port, the former Lacydon creek  where Greek sailors founded the city in 600 BC, making Marseille the oldest urbanised city in France.

It played an active role during the crusades and installed consuls in the Levant. It was devastated in 1423 by the armies of Aragon.

It was incorporated into the kingdom of France en 1481. At the beginning of the 16th century François I built the Château d’If and Fort de la Garde castles in Marseille.

In 1660 Louis XIV ordered the extension of the city towards the south. Enlarged, and with its Galley Arsenal modernised, the city experienced the most tragic episode of its history, when an epidemic of the plague killed half its population in 1720 (45,000 people).

It recovered its vitality and rose to fame in 1792, when 600 volunteers marched to Paris singing "The Battle Hymn for the Army of the Rhine" composed by Rouget de l’Isle, to rally the forces of the Revolution. This song was to become "La Marseillaise", France's national anthem.

The 19th century propelled Marseille into modern times. The policy of colonisation, the large-scale building works of the Second Empire, and the opening of the Suez Canal in particular, all contributed to its influence and made Marseille "the gate to the Orient".

Dark years were to follow, but throughout its history Marseille has always recovered and today, through the Euroméditerranée project, the city is building its future to become the unrivalled capital of southern Europe.