Boulevard Longchamp and Haussmann Mansions

Why is it significant?

Stroll down the grand rectilinear sweep of Boulevard Longchamp, laid out in the mid-nineteenth century to connect the city center directly to the triumphant new water palace.

Key Facts

Open the walk

Stroll down the grand rectilinear sweep of Boulevard Longchamp, laid out in the mid-nineteenth century to connect the city center directly to the triumphant new water palace. This eight-hundred-meter avenue is shaded by a double row of venerable plane trees whose interlocking branches form a protective green vault overhead. Lining both sides of the roadway are stately private townhouses built during the Second Empire by the wealthy elite of shipowners, soap manufacturers, and international traders enriched by maritime commerce. Their ashlar facades feature carved lion heads, classical pediments, wrought-iron balconies bearing family crests, and massive carved oak carriage doors leading into private paved interior courtyards. The quiet hum of the modern electric streetcar gliding along its grassed median revives the memory of Marseille's earliest horse-drawn trams, which began operating along this very route in 1876. The tranquil bourgeois atmosphere contrasts delightfully with the commercial rush of the port down below. Dappled sunlight filters through the green leaves onto golden stone facades, while songbirds call from secluded courtyard gardens. Strollers enjoy this aristocratic promenade, refreshed by the gentle sea breeze drifting inland. The triumphal boulevard was deliberately engineered as an avenue of honor leading thirsty Marseille toward the life-giving alpine waters of the Durance.

Notice the ornate facade at number fifty-four decorated with carved maritime anchors and Neptune heads: the grand private townhouse of a wealthy nineteenth-century transatlantic shipowner.

The boulevard was surveyed precisely along the central axis of the Palais Longchamp cascade so that the colonnade would appear as a theatrical climax to arriving walkers.

Several historic townhouses conceal secluded winter gardens with glass conservatories and private ornamental fountain basins connected to the canal in the 1850s.

Continue along Boulevard Longchamp to its terminus at Place Henri-Dunant to reach the grand wrought-iron gate of Palais Longchamp.