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Being in Marselha is being at home. Getting lost in the streets of Vieux Port, closing your eyes and when you open them feeling the Mediterranean Sea so close amidst majestic architecture that recalls Barcelona, Palma, Napoli, València, Alghero, Catania, Malta, Corti or any Greek island, because Mediterraneanness is the common link of all these peoples who, speaking different languages, really have a common culture represented in this sea that one day helped the Greeks to sail further and colonize new lands.
One of these conquering peoples was the Phocaeans, who settled in what we know today as Provençal Marselha. Centuries later, Marselha continues to be a very important city, an indispensable port enclave and a city that has made migrations the basis of its current society.
The Grandma is very much in love with this Marselha that makes her feel at home and where she keeps some of her best friends and her best life experiences.
Marseille, in Provençal Occitan Marselha, is a city in southern France, the prefecture of the department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the Provence region, it is located on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, near the mouth of the Rhône river.
Marselha is the second-most populous city proper in France, after Paris, over a municipal territory of 241 km2. Together with its suburbs and exurbs, the Marselha metropolitan area, which extends over 3,972 km2. The cities of Marselha, 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.
Founded c. 600 BC by Greek settlers from Phocaea, Marselha 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.
Marselha has been a trading port since ancient times. In particular, it experienced a considerable commercial boom during the colonial period and especially during the 19th century, becoming a prosperous industrial and trading city. Nowadays the Old Port still lies at the heart of the city, where the manufacture of Marselha soap began some six centuries ago. Overlooking the port is the Basilica of Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde or Bonne-mère for the people of Marselha, a Romano-Byzantine church and the symbol of the city.
Inherited from this past, the Grand Port Maritime de Marseille (GPMM) and the maritime economy are major poles of regional and national activity and Marselha remains the first French port, the second Mediterranean port and the fifth European port. Since its origins, Marselha'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 Velodrome Stadium, the CMA CGM Tower, as well as other quayside museums such as the Museum of Civilisations of Europe and the Mediterranean (MuCEM). As a result, Marselha 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 the association football club Olympique de Marseille, one of the most successful and widely supported clubs in France, Marselha has also hosted matches at the 1998 World Cup and Euro 2016. It is also home to several higher education institutions in the region, including the University of Aix-Marseille. A resident of Marselha is a Marseillais.
The name Marseille most likely comes from the name Massalia given to the ancient city initially founded by Greeks. Variations of the name include:
-In Latin Massilia, from the Greek Μασσαλία (Massalía), which is the oldest attestation of the name, since the city was founded by Greek settlers around 600 BC, and remained for a long time a Greek-speaking place even after it fell under Roman rule;
-In Occitan (Provençal) Marselha according to the Classical orthographic norm, which may be written Marsiho according to the Mistralian norm, from the Medieval Occitan Marselha or Masselha;
-In French Marseille,
-In English Marseille or Old English Marseilles.
Marselha was founded as the Greek colony of Massalia c. 600 BC, and was populated by Greek settlers from Phocaea (modern Foça, Turkey). It became the preeminent Greek polis in the Hellenized region of southern Gaul.
The city-state sided with the Roman Republic against Carthage during the Second Punic War (218-201 BC), retaining its independence and commercial empire throughout the western Mediterranean even as Rome expanded its empire into Western Europe and North Africa. However, the city lost its independence following the Roman Siege of Massilia in 49 BC, during Caesar's Civil War, in which Massalia sided with the exiled faction at war with Julius Caesar. Afterward, the Gallo-Roman culture was initiated.
The city maintained its position as a premier maritime trading hub even after its capture by the Visigoths in the fifth century AD, although the city went into decline following the sack of AD 739 by the forces of Charles Martel against the Umayyad Arabs. It became part of the County of Provence during the tenth century, although its renewed prosperity was curtailed by the Black Death of the 14th century and a sack of the city by the Crown of Aragon in 1423.
The city's fortunes rebounded with the ambitious building projects of René of Anjou, Count of Provence, who strengthened the city's fortifications during the mid-15th century. During the 16th century, the city hosted a naval fleet with the combined forces of the Franco-Ottoman alliance, which threatened the ports and navies of the Genoese Republic.
Marselha lost a significant portion of its population during the Great Plague of Marselha in 1720, but the population had recovered by mid-century.
In 1792, the city became a focal point of the French Revolution, and though France's national anthem was born in Strasbourg, it was first sung in Paris by volunteers from Marselha, hence the name the crowd gave it: La Marseillaise.
The Industrial Revolution and establishment of the Second French colonial empire during the 19th century allowed for the further expansion of the city, although it was occupied by the German Wehrmacht in November 1942 and subsequently heavily damaged during World War II. The city has since become a major center for immigrant communities from former French colonies in Africa, such as French Algeria.
The Marseille dialect, a variant of the french language influenced by the provençal, is renowned for its colloquial and melodious nature. It is characterized by an exaggerative style and also incorporates influences from Arabic, Italian, and other local dialects. Despite its colorful expressions, the dialect remains predominantly localized to the city of Marseille, with limited use beyond the region.
More information: City Breaks
There's nothing to see.
Its beauty can't be photographed.
It can only be shared.
It's a place where you have to take sides,
be passionately for or against.
Only then can you see what there is to see.
And you realize, too late,
that you're in the middle of a tragedy.
An ancient tragedy in which the hero is death.
In Marseilles, even to lose you have to know how to fight.
Jean-Claude Izzo
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