The 4th arrondissement of Marseille is one of the 16 arrondissements of Marseille. Located in the city center is bordered to the east by the 1 st and 3 th district, north of the 13 th district, west of the 12 th district and in the south by the 5 th arrondissement It part of the third sector of Marseille.
Districts
The sectors and districts of Marseille are intra-municipal administrative divisions that share the territory of Marseille. The city is thus divided into eight sectors and sixteen municipal districts.
These municipal districts should not be confused with the departmental districts, which are another type of administrative subdivision at the departmental level. In France, the municipalities of Lyon and Paris are also subdivided into municipal sectors.
It is divided into 4 districts: La Blancarde, Les Chartreux, Les Chutes-Lavie and Les Cinq Avenues
La Blancarde
Blancarde is a district of Marseille, in the 4th district. La Blancarde is best known to Marseillais by the station that bears his name. The Marseille-Blancarde station connects the neighborhood to urban transport, regional and national. A house for all is installed in the neighborhood, and offers residents several types of local entertainment. A post office, “Marseille-Blancarde”, is located in district. People looking for work have a local agency. Practitioners of the Catholic worship depend on the parish of Chartreux Saint Calixte, in the Diocese of Marseille. A daily market is located on Place Sébastopole. It is open Monday to Saturday.
The schools in the district depend on the Aix-Marseille Academy. Local children start their education at the Blancarde nursery school, to continue at the Blancarde primary school and at the Chevreul de la Blancarde school group. A private school group is available, from primary to high school. Adult training is also represented, in particular with IFSI la Blancarde (Nursing Training Institute), in conjunction with Marseille hospitals.
Les Chartreux
The Chartreux is a quarter of the 4th arrondissement of Marseille, which is named after a monastery of the Carthusian Order which there remains only the Carthusian church. The name of the district comes from the monastic order created by Saint-Bruno in the Dauphiné. In 1633 he decided to set up a new estate in the center-east of Marseillais. This is what he later called the Grand Domaine des Chartreux.
The area is located northeast of the 4th district, bordering the neighborhood Saint-Just to the north, Montolivet and Chartreux east, Five Avenues and Chutes-Lavie. It is bounded to the north by boulevard Lambert and Barry, to the east, avenue de Montolivet and rue Roquebrune, to the south, the railway line and to the west, rue Jeanne Jugan and avenue de Saint-Just.
This district, over the years, has developed along a valley called Madeleine, a tributary of the Hock that cuts it in two. Formerly a narrow passage between the two plateaus formed on the one hand by Saint-Charles and on the other hand by that of Saint-Julien which beyond rises towards the Garlaban, he saw the often tumultuous waters descending from the hills. From this situation, the district gradually acquires a reputation as a pleasant relaxation area and market gardening.
It was in 1684that the church was built, making it one of the oldest in the city. Consecrated in 1702, it was preserved during the Revolution and later became the parish church of Saint-Bruno. More recently, the district sees the establishment of the Departmental Council of Bouches-du-Rhône, the Dome in the neighboring district of Saint-Just and the creation of two metro stations: Chartreux in its center and Saint-Just in the north.
Chutes-Lavie
Les Chutes-Lavie is one of four components neighborhoods the 4th arrondissement of Marseille. The neighborhood is located in the northwest of the 4th district and riding on a tiny piece of the 13 th district. It is bounded to the north by boulevard des Chutes-Lavies, to the southwest, place Leverrier, to the east, avenue de Saint-Just and avenue des Chartreux to boulevard Jeanne Jugan, and to l ‘Ouest via the Marseille-Paris railway line.
The origin of the name of the district comes from an entrepreneur named Léon Lavie (born in Constantine, the September 4, 1841), which operated flour millsand mills in the vicinity. He began his activity in his hometown by installing flour mills using hydraulic power, then arrived in Marseille in 1878 attracted by the arrival of the water from the Durance. In 1882, he rented the Briolle mill on the old Forestat property in Saint-Marcel, on the Huveaune. Innovative and enterprising, he perfected the tools of the mill by introducing new milling processes, with a steam engine which considerably increased the yield, tripling production. At that time, the arrival of the canal seduced him, he bought a large piece of land in Saint-Just, and took out a concession for the supply of water. He built a series of mills on the slope of the hill. The fairly steep slope produces a very powerful driving force.
Cinq-Avenues
Five Avenues is a neighborhood of 4th arrondissement of Marseille. The area is adjacent to the east by Jarret and the district of Blancarde north neighborhoods Chutes-Lavie and Chartreux, south by the Camas and west, adjoining the 1 st district, neighborhoods St. Charles and Chapter. The Longchamp plateau occupies a large part of this district. It brought its development at the same time as a primary green space with the Jardin des Plantes and the Zoological Garden. To the five avenues of the district, it is possible to add the Boulevard du Jardin-Zoologique and a few meters away, Rue Jussieu, Rue Fondère, Rue de Provence, Rue Marx-Dormoy.
The major crossroads command the entrance to the city center and the traffic is such that, in 1964, an underground passage directly linked the avenue du Maréchal-Foch and the boulevard Philippon, that is to say the boulevard Longchamp. This underground passage was blocked during the construction of line 2 of the Marseille tramway.
The history of the district can also be read from street signs. Place Sébastopol (1863) evokes the Second Empire, the era of the great development of Marseille and this district. The avenue du Maréchal Foch recalls the end of the Great War with Clemenceau and Fayolle. The boulevard du Jardin-Zoologique, the streets of Jardin-des-Plantes, Jussieu, Linné, Buffon and Montbard evoke the old botanical gardens occupied by the arrival of the railway (from Saint-Charles to la Blancarde) and relocated to the garden of Longchamp palace. Dumas is present with rue Monte-Cristo, that of Abbé-Faria and Edmond-Dantès.
The Second World War is remembered by the rue des Trois-Frères-Carasso, the rue Marx-Dormoy, place Brossolette, rue Louis-Grobet and boulevard de la Liberation. Father Fissiaux and his penitentiary for young delinquents is always mentioned. The rue Raspail evokes at the same time the botanist, the politician and the Second Republic of 1848. Many streets evoke the country houses of the name of their owners (Granoux, George, Roussel-Doria, Blancarde and Juramy). Finally, Alphonse Fondère is commemorated by a street that reminds us of his balloon departure from Place Saint-Michel (Place Jean-Jaurès) with Louis Capazza, theNovember 14, 1886. They reached Corsica, making the first crossing at sea with such a machine.
Main Monuments
The Dome of Marseille
The Dôme de Marseille is the main performance hall in Marseille, located on the Esplanade Saint-Just in the district of the same name. Since 1994, the Dôme has become, by virtue of its location and its structure, the unmissable meeting point for various forms of shows in the south of France: rock, variety, classical and contemporary dance, theater, comic shows.
The hall can accommodate 1,200 to 8,500 spectators depending on the configuration of the show. Its dome, designed by architect Denis Sloan, recalls the hull of an overturned boat and is supported by a 27 m high arch. The Dome can also accommodate, thanks to its modular capacity made possible by a clever set of gauge curtains, corporate conventions.
Since its inauguration in 1994, the Dôme has received an average of 300,000 spectators per year.
Longchamp Palace
The Longchamp palace is a palace – water tower of neoclassical style – Second Empire of the xix th century, the neighborhood Five Avenues of the 4th arrondissement of Marseille, in the Rhone delta in Provence-Alpes-Côte d ‘Azure. The site has been listed as a historic monument since1 st October 1974, and classified since November 18, 1997 and September 8, 1999
The Palais Longchamp is a monument in the 4th arrondissement of Marseille, France. It houses the Musée des beaux-arts and Muséum d’histoire naturelle de Marseille. The surrounding Longchamp Park (French: Parc Longchamp) is listed by the French Ministry of Culture as one of the Notable Gardens of France.
Inaugurated in 1869, the palace is composed of several entities:
the pavilion – central water tower, water reservoir of the Durance arriving via the Marseille canal of 85 km, as the main historical source of drinking water and sanitation for the city of Marseille.
the Museum of Fine Arts of Marseille (in the left wing of the palace)
the natural history museum of Marseille (in the right wing of the palace, under the supervision of the Ministry of Higher Education and Research, classified museum of France in 2002).
a public garden (front) with green space, ponds with waterfalls and allegorical statues in the glory of the water, the fertility and the abundance.
Longchamp park (behind the palace) with Marseille observatory, botanical garden, and zoological park (animals have been replaced by animal art sculptures since Marseille-Provence 2013).
Longchamp Park was opened in 1869, at the same time as the palace; in addition, the art and natural-history collections, which had been housed elsewhere, moved into the palace at this time. The park also contained a zoo, which was run by the city from 1898 until 1987, when, because of public disaffection with traditional zoos, it was closed.
At the summit of the fountain are sculptures of four large bulls and three women—a central figure representing the Durance flanked by one who represents grapes and one who represents wheat and fertility. Behind the women, within the central structure of the palace, is a manmade stone grotto decorated with carved stalactites and nymphs. From beneath the three women and from the bulls, water flows into a secondary basin, and then into an artificial pond. The water drains out of the pond into underground pipes, from which it emerges in a waterfall-like structure, and in twelve ornate bronze fountains lined alongside it, flowing into a second, larger pond.
The central feature of the garden behind the palace is a classic garden à la française, which is known as the Jardin du plateau. The garden also includes an English landscape garden, with winding alleys and many notable trees, including a 150-year-old plane tree and an oak and a Siberian elm that are both 120 years old.
The area that was occupied by the 19th-century zoo still contains many of its picturesque buildings in fantastic styles, including oriental pavilions for the giraffe and elephant, cages ornamented with Turkish tiles, and bear cages and seal dens decorated with rocaille, or rock-work.
Carthusian Church of Marseille
The Church of St. Mary Magdalene Carthusian is Place Edmond Audran in the 4th district of Marseille. Before being a parish church, this church was the chapel of a monastery of the Carthusian order which gave its name to the district.
The 31-meter-high facade of the church is preceded by a 28.60-meter-wide peristyle supported by eight ionic columns 10.60 meters high and 1.95 meters in diameter. The entablature bears the inscription: Cartusia Villae Novae Hanc Massiliensem fundavit Anno MDCXXXIII (The Charterhouse of Villeneuve founded this house in Marseille in 1633). Eight bases above the columns were to carry statues which, due to lack of funding, were never put in place. The higher order, set back five meters, only corresponds to the central nave. It is decorated with four Corinthian pilasters with a large canopy in the center. A pediment surmounted by the cross crowns the whole.
The thick panels of the walnut door are the work of master carpenters: Olivier Guignat and Jean-Baptiste Onillon (1700). Two medallions were added in 1956 representing Saint Bruno and Saint Marie-Madeleine, sculpted by Alfred Lang.
The large nave is 46.90 meters long, 10.20 meters wide and 25.60 meters high. Its main decoration is a remarkable cornice. In this large nave are the great organ of the house Cavaillé-Coll (1912), a monumental pulpit in oak wood, Flemish style, from the workshops of the Goyer brothers in Louvain (1862), a Christ carved from a trunk of the Sainte Baume by Chauval, passing artist, under the dome the emblem of the Carthusians namely a cruciferous globe surrounded by seven stars and finally the high altar made on the plans of the architect Théophile Dupouxby the Sauvigne de la Capelette workshops (1893). This high altar represents a tomb decorated in its center by the arms of the Carthusians, the globe and the cross inscribed in a garland of laurels; in a niche on the right is a representation of Saint Marie Madeleine recognizable by the perfume vase placed at her feet and in a niche on the left we recognize Saint Marthe slaying the dragon. This high altar has been classified as a historic monument since the June 19, 2002.
The collaterals housed the chapels intended for the masses read by the Carthusian fathers.
Left collateral: In the first bay, we notice the chapel of the baptismal font with a marble statue of Our Lady of the Rosary which had been buried in the old gardens of the monastery by the last occupants of the convent in order to save it from revolutionary destruction. In the fifth bay is a statue of Saint Joseph with the infant Jesus. In the last span, we notice the chapel of the Virgin.
Right collateral: in the first bay statue of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, in the second tomb of Dom Joseph Martinet surmounted by his death mask, in the fifth statue of Saint Anthony of Padua by Louis Botinelly (1956), in the sixth statue of Saint Bruno also by Louis Botinelly. In the background, the chapel of Saint Marie-Madeleine with its statue by Botinelly, a tabular altar by Lang and a reproduction of the initial project of the Charterhouse by dom Berger.
Natural History Museum of Marseille
The natural history museum of Marseille was created in 1819 by Jean-Baptiste, marquis de Montgrand, mayor of Marseille from March 1813 to 1830 and the count of Villeneuve-Bargemon, then prefect. It occupies since 1869, the right wing of the Palais Longchamp built by architect Henri-Jacques Espérandieu (1829-1874), in the 4th district of Marseille.
The museum was created in 1819. It occupied various places, including the Chapelle des Bernardines, before settling down definitively in 1869 at the Palais Longchamp which it shared with the Museum of Fine Arts. The museum is today under the supervision of the Ministry of Higher Education and Research. It was classified museum of France in 2002.
In all, the museum has 83,000 animal specimens, 200,000 plant specimens, 81,000 paleontology specimens, and 8,000 mineral samples. Part of its collections is presented to the public, spread over four rooms:
the Safari room, bringing together naturalized animals;
the Provence room, on regional flora and fauna. Its walls are decorated with frescoes painted by Raphaël Ponson and classified as historic monuments (recently restored in the spirit of its inauguration in 1869);
the room of osteology, involving skeletons and skulls;
the room of prehistory, on the evolution.
The museum organizes numerous conferences and temporary exhibitions.
Museum of Fine Arts of Marseille
The Musée des beaux-arts de Marseille is one of the main museums in the city of Marseille, in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region. It occupies a wing of the Palais Longchamp, and displays a collection of paintings, sculptures and drawings from the 16th to 19th centuries.
The museum is one of five created by the Consulate in 1801 in the main cities of France. The basis for the collection was the seizure by revolutionaries of state property after the consular decree of 1 September 1800. Successive deposits of state property were made in 1814, 1817 and 1819, and throughout the rest of the 19th century. In 1856 the Borély collection was acquired by the museum. In 1869 the museum moved into the left wing of the Palais Longchamp. As of 2012 the museum was closed for renovations.
The museum is located in the right wing of the Palais Longchamp, built by the architect Henri-Jacques Espérandieu between 1862 and 1869 to commemorate the arrival in the city of waters of the Durance river through the Canal de Marseille. The building has been designated a Historical Monument. A colonnade connects the museum to the monumental central fountain of the chateau. The building has rich sculptural decoration, including the group of the Durance by Jules Cavelier and four wild animals by Antoine-Louis Barye at the entrance. On the stairs of the museum there are two paintings by Pierre Puvis de Chavannes: Marseille, gateway to the East and Marseilles, a Greek colony.
Marseille Observatory
The Marseille Observatory is an astronomical observatory professional located in Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône), which originated at the beginning of the xviii th century. The Marseille Observatory was combined in 2000 with the Space Astronomy Laboratory (LAS) to form the Marseille Astrophysics Laboratory (LAM).
Marseille Observatory with a history that goes back to the early 18th century. In its 1877 incarnation, it was the discovery site of a group of galaxies known as Stephan’s Quintet, discovered by its director Édouard Stephan. Marseille Observatory is now run as a joint research unit by Aix-Marseille University and the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS).
The old Palais Longchamps facilities are a noted tourist destination in Marseilles area, and a planetarium was also added in 2001. One of the noted exhibits is the Foucault glass-mirror telescope, and various items from centuries of astronomical activities.
Foucault’s telescope is a noted historical example, because it was the forerunner of the modern style of big reflecting telescopes which use a minute layer of metal on a figured piece of glass. Before this, the main technology was to make the whole mirror of metal, and it would really be another half-century before silvered glass mirrors really caught on for astronomy. A major change in the 20th century was to change from using solution to coat the glass with silver, to use a vapor deposition process.
Marseille
Marseille is the prefecture of the department of Bouches-du-Rhône and region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur in France. It is located on the Mediterranean coast near the mouth of the Rhône. Marseille is the second largest city in France, covering an area of 241 km2 (93 sq mi) and had a population of 870,018 in 2016.
Marseille has a complex history. It was founded by the Phoceans (from the Greek city of Phocea) in 600 B.C. and is one of the oldest cities in Europe. Marseille is the second largest city in France in terms of population. Its population is a real melting pot of different cultures.
From colourful markets (like Noailles market) that will make you feel like you are in Africa, to the Calanques (a natural area of big cliffs falling into the sea – Calanque means fjord), from the Panier area (the oldest place of the town and historically the place where newcomers installed) to the Vieux-Port (old harbor) and the Corniche (a road along the sea) Marseille has definitely a lot to offer.
Marseille is now France’s largest city on the Mediterranean coast and the largest port for commerce, freight and cruise ships. The city was European Capital of Culture in 2013 and European Capital of Sport in 2017; it hosted matches at the 1998 World Cup and Euro 2016. It is home to Aix-Marseille University.