Fort Saint-Jean
twelfth to seventeenth century
The fort guards the mouth of the Vieux-Port with two towers that every Marseillais knows: the square tower of King René, built in the fourteen forties, and the round Fanal tower, a lighthouse of sixteen forty four that told ships they had found the harbour. Between them lies a maze of ramparts, courtyards, barracks and a Romanesque chapel that belonged to the Knights of Saint John, the Hospitallers who ran a commandery here before they left for Rhodes and Malta. Today the whole fort is part of the museum, free to enter, and it is the best place in Marseille to sit in the sun and watch the boats.
Louis the Fourteenth turned the medieval site into a proper fortress in the sixteen sixties, and he did it in a way the city never forgave: the cannons of Fort Saint-Jean and of Fort Saint-Nicolas across the water pointed not at the sea but at Marseille itself, to keep a rebellious town in line. Look for the loopholes on the landward side. In the seventeen nineties the fort was a prison for royalists during the Revolution, and in nineteen forty four a German ammunition store inside it exploded and destroyed much of the north wing.
Restoration for the museum's opening in twenty thirteen took several years and uncovered walls from every century of the city's history. Wander the rampart walk, called the chemin de ronde, past the vaulted Salle du Corps de Garde and the King René tower, whose top has one of the finest views of the harbour. Small exhibitions on Mediterranean themes are shown in the restored buildings, and children's workshops run in the old barracks.
Did You Know? King René, the duke who built the square tower, was also the count of Provence and a poet; Marseille still names streets and cakes after him.
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