Fort Saint-Jean
Fort Saint-Jean is a fort in Marseille that was built under Louis XIV in 1660 at the entrance to the Old Port. Since 2013 it has been linked by two pedestrian bridges to the historic Le Panier district and the Museum of Civilizations of Europe and the Mediterranean .
history
Fort Saint-Jean was built on a site previously occupied by the Military Order of St. John , from which the new building took its name. Fort Saint-Nicolas was built on the opposite side of the port at the same time. Louis XIV said of their construction: "We found that the people of Marseille are very fond of beautiful fortresses. We wanted to have our own at the entrance to this great port." In fact, the two new forts were built in response to a local uprising against the governor as a defense of the city: their cannons pointed inward toward the city, not outward toward the sea. Two earlier buildings were incorporated into the structure of the fort: the Coming of the Knights of the Order of St John of Jerusalem from the 12th century, which served as a monastic hospice during the Crusades, and the tower of René I, King of Provence, from the 15th century. Century. In April 1790, Fort Saint-Jean was captured by a revolutionary mob who beheaded the Chevalier de Beausse , commander of the royal garrison, after refusing to surrender the fortress. During the French Revolution that followed, the fort was used as a prison housing Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, and two of his sons. After the fall of Robespierre in 1794, around a hundred Jacobin prisoners were massacred in the fortress.
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Fort Saint-Jean was owned by the French army, which used it as a barracks and hospital for the African army. During the years when the French Foreign Legion was stationed mainly in North Africa (1830 to 1962), the fortress was a final stop for recruits from the legion destined for basic training in Algeria.
During the Second World War, Fort Saint-Jean was occupied by the German military in November 1942. During the liberation of Marseille in August 1944, the explosion of an ammunition depot in the fort destroyed much of its historic battlements and buildings. After that, Fort Saint-Jean was again in the possession of the French army, but was neglected and decommissioned.
In 1960 it was handed over to the Ministry of Culture and classified as a historical monument in 1964. The damaged parts were reconstructed between 1967 and 1971.
In 2013, Fort Saint-Jean became part of the Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilizations (MuCEM).
The main buildings of the complex include:
- King René's tower is dedicated to the history of the place.
- The DRASSM building houses a documentation center
- The Georges Henri Rivière building is intended for temporary exhibitions
literature
- Roger Duchêne, Jean Contrucci: Marseille, 2600 ans d'histoire | publisher = Editions Fayard. 2004, ISBN 2-213-60197-6 .
- David Jacoby: Hospitality Ships and Transportation across the Mediterranean. In The Hospitallers, the Mediterranean and Europe. , Ashgate 2007, pp. 57-72, ISBN 0-7546-6275-6 .
Web links
Coordinates: 43 ° 17 ′ 41.7 ″ N , 5 ° 21 ′ 44 ″ E