Cultured Traveler: Marseille Polishes Its Image

Written By Unknown on Minggu, 08 September 2013 | 17.35

Agnes Dherbeys for The New York Times

MuCEM, a museum that opened in June.

Until the European Union named Marseille a European Capital of Culture for 2013, it may have been one of the most underappreciated cities on the Continent. Situated on a splendid Mediterranean harbor, surrounded by hills and blessed with an average 300 days of sunshine, a variety of museums, great restaurants and a vital, multicultural population, it has just about everything a visitor could ask for. Yet because of its rough-edged reputation, people usually preferred to spend their sojourns in the South of France in the quieter, smaller cities of Aix-en-Provence, Avignon, Arles and Nîmes.

But this year, invigorated by the tremendous financial investment tied to the honor, the city of more than 850,600 inhabitants now boasts so many new cultural institutions and attractions, has converted so many industrial buildings into arts centers and has revitalized so many neglected neighborhoods that it may now be impossible for travelers to resist.

In the past, the lively port, crowded with fishing vessels and luxury yachts, was never particularly conducive to just hanging out; there was too little space. Thanks to smart city planning that called for expanded walkways and plazas, all that has changed. No less than 660 million euros from public and private funds have poured into the city and surrounding region since 2008, when Marseille received the designation. (Kosice in Slovakia is the other city selected for this year.) In Marseille, the designation has transformed many sites into cultural and architectural marvels.

Dilapidated docks have given way to handsome wooden wharves and boathouses, and sculpture exhibitions have become a regular occurrence — recently, brightly painted life-size animals, created by local artists, could be found there and all over the city. Because concerts and dance performances will be held on the main plaza through the fall, the architect Norman Foster's firm, Foster & Partners, was commissioned to provide some relief from the elements. The result is a sleek pavilion called Ombrière. This glistening sheet of steel, suspended by eight slender poles, reflects everything beneath and near it, so that at night the sea shimmers both on its ceiling and in the harbor.

A short walk along the north side of the port to the imposing 12th-century Fort St.-Jean takes you to two high, narrow footbridges. The first leads to the labyrinthine historic district, Le Panier (the Basket), site of the region's first Greek settlements in 600 B.C. This hilly quarter, dynamited by the Nazis in 1943 because it served as a haven for Resistance fighters, has long been a home to immigrants, who originally came from Italy and Corsica and have more recently arrived from Africa, South America and Asia.

In the historic district center, the Vieille Charité, previously an almshouse and a hospice, houses museums of Mediterranean archaeology and African, Oceanic and American Indian art. From arcaded passageways, the museums open onto a domed chapel and a peaceful courtyard with the new Charité Café and a general bookstore. To get a feeling for the district requires walking through narrow alleyways lined with cafes, restaurants and artists' workshops, chic lofts side by side with rundown houses, in an atmosphere like Montmartre's in Paris. Upon reaching the small Place des Moulins at the top, you will find a tree-lined square framed by pastel-colored houses, with views out to the sea. Fifteen windmills once stood here alongside cannons, placed to defend the city.

The second bridge from Fort St.-Jean connects to a spacious esplanade and two new dazzling museums, the Musée des Civilisations de l'Europe et de la Méditerranée (MuCEM), which opened in June and was designed by the architect Rudy Ricciotti, and Villa Méditerranée, opened in March and designed by the architect Stefano Boeri. Both were built with financing that came with the cultural capital designation and offer breathtaking, panoramic views of the city and the Mediterranean, extending from the statue of Notre-Dame de la Garde on a hill to the south to the majestic Cathédrale de la Major to the north. The block-shaped MuCEM has a black, lattice-patterned facade and towering windows, with a rooftop terrace, garden and restaurant, which like all the dining spots in the museum is overseen by the three-star Michelin chef Gerald Passédat. The first national museum outside Paris, it plans exhibits that will combine anthropology, history, archaeology, art history and contemporary art. One of its first temporary exhibitions, "At the Bazaar of Gender," on view through Jan. 6, 2014, tackles how gender has been perceived in the Mediterranean countries.


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