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Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The town hall of Marseille, located on the dock of the Port in the 2nd arrondissement, is a building of the 3rd quarter of the 17th century (1653-1673) and the 1st quarter of the 18th century, marked by baroque architecture inspired by Genoese palaces. Its singularity lies in the absence of an interior staircase: access to the first floor was initially through a wooden suspended bridge connecting the building to a nearby building, replaced in 1786 by a stone gallery designed by Esprit-Joseph Brun. The ground floor was reserved for merchants (rue de la Loge), while the first floor housed municipal institutions. Although often attributed to Pierre Puget, only the royal shield above the door (1673) is of his hand, the rest being the work of an anonymous Italian architect and sculptors Mathieu and François Pourtal.

The present building replaces an ancient medieval "Communal Palace", mentioned in 1221, but threatened with ruin in the seventeenth century. The first stone was laid in 1653 under the impetus of the consul Gaspard of Villages, but the work, interrupted by the Fronde and financial difficulties, was completed only in 1673. Built on stilts to stabilize the unstable soil of the harbour, the structure was consolidated by iron ties. The building escaped destruction during the Revolution (1794), despite its association with the Marseille federalists, thanks to the intervention of Robespierre and Granet.

In the 19th century, lizards in the walls (1839) revealed solid foundations, avoiding total reconstruction. The architect Jean-Baptiste Rivaud conducted a restoration (1842-1847), including the integration of adjacent houses. In 1914, Stanislas Clastrier changed the roofs, replacing Lardoise with Mansart attic. Ranked a Historic Monument in 1948, the city hall survived the German destruction of 1943 (dynamite of the Old Port) thanks to its heritage status. An underground extension of 8,300 m2, delivered in 2006 by Franck Hammoutène, modernized its functions without altering the historical facade.

Mansart de Sagonne's inaboutious project (1752), which provided for a royal place for Louis XV, was abandoned for the benefit of the Hôtel-Dieu. During the Revolution, the royal coat of arms carved by Puget were vandalized (1792), then restored under Louis XVIII before being replaced by a mould in 1913 (the original is preserved at the Museum of Fine Arts). The immediate surroundings of the town hall were profoundly transformed after 1945, with the reconstruction of the district by Eugène Beaudouin, leaving room for open spaces such as the present Villeneuve-Bargemon square.

The Genoese influence, emphasized by historians Jean-Jacques Gloton and Arnaud Ramière de Fortanier, is manifested in the distribution of the masses (central arcades, lateral forebody) and baroque decoration (volutes, mascarons, garlands). The facade, symmetrical with triangular frontons and balcony supported by columns, contrasts with the criticisms of the prefect Villeneuve-Bargemon (early 19th century), who judged the building "heavy" and devoid of style. Despite this, the city hall remains a symbol of Marseille municipal autonomy, inherited from a medieval compromise (1136-1138) between the Count of Toulouse and local notables.

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