Concept

Marseille

Overview

Marseille (Occitan: Marselha) is a city in southern France, the prefecture of the Bouches-du-Rhône department and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in Provence, it marks the eastern end of the Côte Bleue on the Mediterranean coast. Marseille is the second-most populous city proper in France, after Paris, with 886,040 inhabitants in 2023 over a municipal territory of 241 km2 (93 sq mi). Together with its suburbs and exurbs, the Marseille metropolitan area, which extends over 3,972 km2 (1,534 sq mi), had a population of 1,917,728 as of 2023. The cities of Marseille, Aix-en-Provence, and 90 suburban municipalities have formed since 2016 the Aix-Marseille-Provence Metropolis, an indirectly elected metropolitan authority now in charge of wider metropolitan issues, with a population of 1,939,077 as of 2023. The southeast of Marseille is in Calanques National Park, making Marseille the only large city in France to have a national park within city limits.

Founded c. 600 BC by Greek settlers, Marseille is the oldest city in France, as well as one of Europe's oldest continuously inhabited settlements. It was known to the ancient Greeks as Massalia and to Romans as Massilia. Marseille has been a trading port since ancient times. It experienced a commercial boom during the colonial period and especially in the 19th century, becoming a prosperous industrial and trading city. The Old Port still lies at the heart of the city, where the manufacture of Marseille soap began some six centuries ago. Overlooking the port is the Notre-Dame de la Garde – known as "la Bonne Mère" by the people of Marseille – a Romano-Byzantine church and a symbol of the city. Today, the Grand Port Maritime de Marseille (GPMM) and the maritime economy play a major role in regional and national economic activity. Marseille remains the first French port, the second Mediterranean port and the fifth European port. Since its origins, Marseille's openness to the Mediterranean Sea has made it a cosmopolitan city marked by cultural and economic exchanges with Southern Europe, the Middle East, North Africa and Asia. In Europe, the city has the third largest Jewish community after London and Paris.

In the 1990s, the Euroméditerranée project for economic development and urban renewal was launched. New infrastructure projects and renovations were carried out in the 2000s and 2010s: the tramway, the renovation of the Hôtel-Dieu into a luxury hotel, the expansion of the Stade Vélodrome, the CMA CGM Tower, as well as other quayside museums such as the Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisations (MuCEM). As a result, Marseille now has the most museums in France after Paris. The city was named European Capital of Culture in 2013 and European Capital of Sport in 2017. Home of Olympique de Marseille, one of the most successful and widely supported football clubs in France, Marseille has hosted matches at the 1998 FIFA World Cup and UEFA Euro 2016. It is home to several higher education institutions in the region, including the University of Aix-Marseille. A resident of Marseille is a Marseillais.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

In the original texts

Passages from public-domain books where Marseille is discussed.

These are Alsace, the three bishoprics of Mentz, Toul, and Verdun, and the three cities of Dunkirk, Bayonne, and Marseilles. Both in the provinces of the five great farms (called so on account of an ancient division of the duties of customs into five great branches, each of which was originally the subject of a particular farm, though they are now all united into one), and in those which are said to be reckoned…
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
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I had expected to satisfy myself, at Marseilles, of the causes of the difference of quality between the rice of Carolina, and that of Piedmont, which is brought in quantities to Marseilles. Not being able to do it, I made an excursion of three weeks into the rice country beyond the Alps, going through it from Vercelli to Pavia, about sixty miles.
Thomas Jefferson, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson Library Edition - Vol. 6
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There are also two other mouths, that diverge from the Sebennytic and flow into the sea,—the Saitic, and the Mendesian. The Bolbitine and Bucolic mouths are not natural, but artificial. The Nile, when full, inundates not only Delta, but also part of the country said to belong to Libya and Arabia, to the extent of about two days' journey on each side. At the summer solstice it fills and overflows for a hundred days…
Herodotus, The Boys' and Girls' Herodotus
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But, when he arrived at that port, after a most fatiguing and dangerous navigation, the czar Alexis was no more; the government was changed, and Russia in confusion. The governor of Archangel suffered Verstin, Le Fort, and his whole troop, to remain a long time, in the utmost poverty and distress, and even threatened to send them into the extremity of Siberia; upon which every man shifted for himself.
Voltaire, The History of Peter the Great, Emperor of Russia
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Arles has its “_Chiffonne_,” so, in symbolical cant, they name that Aristocrat Secret-Association; Arles has its pavements piled up, by and by, into Aristocrat barricades. Against which Rebecqui, the hot-clear Patriot, must lead Marseilles with cannon. The Bar of Iron has not yet risen to the top in the Bay of Marseilles; neither have these hot Sons of the Phoceans submitted to be slaves. By clear management and hot…
Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution
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Marseille

Overview

In the original texts

Philosophers who discussed Marseille

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