Fort Saint-Jean & MuCEM: The Meeting of Stone and Concrete Filigree

Why is it significant?

Walk across the spectacular one-hundred-and-thirty-meter high footbridge suspended over the sea connecting the seventeenth-century battlements of Fort Saint-Jean to the MuCEM (Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilizations).

Key Facts

Open the walk

Walk across the spectacular one-hundred-and-thirty-meter high footbridge suspended over the sea connecting the seventeenth-century battlements of Fort Saint-Jean to the MuCEM (Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilizations). Designed by architect Rudy Ricciotti and opened in twenty thirteen, the MuCEM is wrapped in an intricate lattice of black ultra-high-performance concrete that filters the sea breeze and sunlight like a delicate fishnet or Moorish mashrabiya screen.

Across the footbridge stands Fort Saint-Jean, constructed in sixteen sixty by order of King Louis the Fourteenth. Notice that the cannons mounted on the stone ramparts do not point solely out to sea to fight off foreign fleets: they point directly inward toward the city! The Sun King built this fortress not only to defend Marseille, but to keep its notoriously rebellious, independent-minded citizens under the iron thumb of the royal crown.

Climb the square Tower of King René, built in fourteen forty-seven, for an unmatched panoramic vista across the mouth of the harbor toward Fort Saint-Nicolas and the Chateau d'If.

Look across the harbor basin to the high limestone peak crowned by Notre-Dame de la Garde.