



A little history
The birth of the great seaport
The tour begins at Place Joliette, in front of one of the entrances to Docks Village, the prelude to our architectural tour of Marseille. Before delving into the unique and transformative history of this Mediterranean city, we take a moment to recall the origins and development strategy of Marseille.
It all began with the arrival of the Phocaeans in 600 BC. These sailors from Greece settled on the north shore of the Lacydon inlet (Old Port), in what is now the Panier district. In 49 BC, the city was annexed by the Roman Empire. Massalia then became Massilia. Hundreds of years later, the city saw a massive acceleration in maritime trade. During its heyday, the great seaport moved to Joliette to expand northwards and also to accommodate a railway line.
The neighbourhood regeneration project
However, this prosperity was short-lived and in the 1980s, Marseille chose to transform itself in an unprecedented way, thanks to the regeneration project. Today, we can admire the exterior of the Docks, a vast building that now houses shops, offices, restaurants and much more, and which was once an old building used to store paper and wheat. The original function of the docks obviously disappeared with the arrival of containers in the 1990s. The fear of fire was omnipresent due to the presence of wooden beams and structures, but renovation has made the building safer and more attractive in 2015. We wander through magnificent passageways clad in blue mosaic, designed by Italian architects to evoke the colour of water. Walking through these vast corridors, you can imagine the transformation that has taken place. Once outside, we head for the FRAC, Fonds régionaux d’art contemporain.