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Vieux-Port of Marseille: Forts, Memorials and Origins

Vieux-Port of Marseille: Forts, Memorials and Origins

Marseille · France

6 stops
  • Audio guide
  • 4 languages
  • Offline

Walk with the Vieux-Port of Marseille as your thread, from Notre-Dame de la Garde and the Citadelle de Marseille to the Monument aux héros et victimes de la mer. Along the way, Fort Saint-Jean and Le vieux Port bring the harbor’s landmarks into focus, while the Port antique connects the walk with Marseille’s ancient beginnings. The changing mix of church, fort, memorial, attraction and ruins gives you a vivid way to understand why the Vieux-Port remains central to the city.

The walk

  1. Notre-Dame de la Garde

    Notre-Dame de la Garde

    A hilltop church built over a medieval chapel and a sixteenth-century fort

  2. Fort Saint-Nicolas

    Fort Saint-Nicolas

    Citadelle de Marseille, also called Fort Saint-Nicolas, is a tourist attraction.

  3. Monument aux héros et victimes de la mer

    Monument aux héros et victimes de la mer

    A bronze rescue frozen at sea, built by Marseille’s sailors to remember those who never came home.

  4. Fort Saint-Jean

    Fort Saint-Jean

    A harbour fort that began as a Greek-occupied promontory and became a royal warning to Marseille.

  5. Old Port of Marseille

    Old Port of Marseille

    A surviving fish market carrying Marseille’s old fishing trade into the present.

  6. Ancient Port of Marseille

    Ancient Port of Marseille

    Port antique is a ruin and tourism attraction in Marseille.

Data: OpenStreetMap contributors and Google Places

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