The History Museum of Marseille

Historians and archaeologists are unanimous about the antiquity of Marseilles. All the writings and other inheritances of the past as well as the recent discoveries confirm this thesis. The Marseilles are not very proud of the status of their city, considered the oldest in France, with 2,600 years of existence.26 centuries of existence  makes a lot of stories to tell. It is therefore quite natural that there should be a museum devoted solely to the history of Marseilles. It was inaugurated in 1983 and underwent a renovation in 2013. It is located at 2 rue Henri Barbusse, in the first arrondissement, just behind the Center Bourse, the largest shopping center in Marseille.The choice of this location is evocative as here is also the Garden of the Vestiges, archaeological site of the ancient Port of Massalia, which will later become Marseille. These remains were uncovered during the construction of the large shopping center. These are the oldest traces of the Phocaean occupation of the place 600 centuries before our era.The Marseille History Museum consists of 3,500 m² of exhibition space, a 200-seat auditorium and a documentation center. Here, everything refers to the fact that Marseille is the oldest French city and that it is also an open port on the Mediterranean. The museum collection consists of nearly 4,000 pieces as well as hundreds of multimedia devices.If you want to travel in the past, the History Museum is certainly the best place to do it. The journey takes place through thirteen chronological sequences, beginning with the first prehistoric occupations to contemporary urban developments. Each historical sequence of the museum is deployed around an emblematic object of the city.To make the visit even more interesting, archaeologists, historians and museum guides like to introduce a Marseille character associated with a defined time. For example, they recount the genesis of Marseille according to the accounts of the geographer Pythéas, witness of this time. At other times, the witness may be a fictional character such as Edmond Dantes, the Earl of Monte Cristo, the hero of Alexandre Dumas' novel.The museum opens its doors during the week from 10 am to 6 pm. It welcomes several hundreds, even thousands of visitors every day, all wanting to know more about the history of the ancient city of Massalia and its development over the centuries before becoming the great metropolis that it is today .