Marseille History Museum
Encyclopedia
The Marseille History Museum (Musée d'Histoire de Marseille) is the local historical and archaeological museum of Marseille
in France
. It was opened in 1983, the first town historical museum in France, to display the major archaeological finds discovered when the site was excavated in 1967 for commercial redevelopment and the construction of the Centre de la Bourse shopping centre. The museum building, which is entered from within the centre, opens onto the "jardin des vestiges", a garden containing the stabilised archaeological remains of classical ramparts, port buildings, a necropolis
and so on.
The museum presently contains permanent displays exhibiting the history of Marseille up to the 18th century. Highlights include:
Further building works are planned which when completed will make possible permanent exhibitions of Marseille's history in the 19th and 20th centuries.
The museum also includes a library, documentation center, and video collection.
Marseille
Marseille , known in antiquity as Massalia , is the second largest city in France, after Paris, with a population of 852,395 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Marseille extends beyond the city limits with a population of over 1,420,000 on an area of...
in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. It was opened in 1983, the first town historical museum in France, to display the major archaeological finds discovered when the site was excavated in 1967 for commercial redevelopment and the construction of the Centre de la Bourse shopping centre. The museum building, which is entered from within the centre, opens onto the "jardin des vestiges", a garden containing the stabilised archaeological remains of classical ramparts, port buildings, a necropolis
Necropolis
A necropolis is a large cemetery or burial ground, usually including structural tombs. The word comes from the Greek νεκρόπολις - nekropolis, literally meaning "city of the dead"...
and so on.
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 of a vessel of this period in the world);
- the prehistory of the region round the later city, the LiguresLiguresThe Ligures were an ancient people who gave their name to Liguria, a region of north-western Italy.-Classical sources:...
and the Phocaeans, and the development through the Ancient GreekAncient GreekAncient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...
and RomanAncient RomeAncient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
periods of the port of Massilia; - early ChristianityChristianityChristianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
(4th-6th centuries); - medieval potters' workshops and the first French manufactory of faienceFaienceFaience or faïence is the conventional name in English for fine tin-glazed pottery on a delicate pale buff earthenware body, originally associated with Faenza in northern Italy. The invention of a white pottery glaze suitable for painted decoration, by the addition of an oxide of tin to the slip...
(13th century); - the redevelopment of the city under Louis XIV and the construction of the forts 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 make possible permanent exhibitions of Marseille's history in the 19th and 20th centuries.
The museum also includes a library, documentation center, and video collection.