Marseille History Museum

The Marseille History Museum (French: Musée d'Histoire de Marseille) is the local historical and archaeological museum of Marseille in France. When opened in 1983, it became one of the most significant museums for urban history in France, dedicated to exhibiting the major archaeological finds discovered after the site was excavated in 1967; at the same time the property was redeveloped commercially and the Centre Bourse shopping arcade constructed. The museum building is entered from within the centre, and opens out onto the "Jardin des Vestiges", an outdoor garden containing the stabilised archaeological remains; it includes classical ramparts, port buildings, and a necropolis.

Marseille History Museum
Location within Marseille
Marseille History Museum (France)
Location2, rue Henri-Barbusse 13001 Marseille
Coordinates43°17′52.0″N 5°22′32.0″E
TypeHistory museum
Websitewww.marseille-tourisme.com

Highlights
Roman wreck Jules-Verne 4. The wreck is of a 15 m long dredger

The museum presently contains permanent displays exhibiting the history of Marseille up to the 18th century. Highlights include:

  • some of the finds from the site itself, including, most famously, the hull of a ship of the 2nd century (claimed to be the best preserved vessel of this period in the world);
  • the prehistory of the region round the later city, the Ligures and the Phocaeans, and the development through the Ancient Greek and Roman periods of the port of Massilia;
  • early Christianity (4th-6th centuries);
  • medieval potters' workshops and the first French manufacture of faience (13th century);
  • the redevelopment of the city under Louis XIV and the construction of the forts of Saint-Jean and Saint-Nicolas;
  • the architecture and building works of the architect, sculptor and painter Pierre Puget;
  • the Great Plague of 1720.

Further building works are planned which, when completed, will assure permanent exhibitions of Marseille's history for the 19th and 20th centuries.

The museum also includes a library, documentation centre, and video collection.

Sources


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.