A chain that closed a port
A simple, effective answer in Mediterranean harbours before heavy artillery.
photography taken by Christophe.Finot — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Celuici — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Georges Seguin (Okki) — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Georges Seguin (Okki) — CC BY-SA 3.0
Because Marseille was a city in revolt against central authority. After an uprising in the seventeenth century, Louis XIV had two forts built at the harbour mouth — Saint-Jean and Saint-Nicolas — with guns trained on the city itself. Marseille understood the message, and it remains part of how the city tells its relationship with Paris.
The fort's courtyards, gardens and walkways are normally open free, with an excellent view over the harbour and sea. The MuCEM exhibitions in the neighbouring building are ticketed. You can easily spend an hour in the fort free without entering the museum.
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A square fifteenth-century defensive tower at the mouth of the old port, built by René, king of Naples and count of Provence, and the oldest part of what later became Fort Saint-Jean. Its function explains the geography: the mouth of the old port is narrow, and it was closed by a massive chain drawn between two towers on either bank to keep hostile ships out. This is one of them. The chain mechanism was common in Mediterranean harbours, a simple and effective answer before the age of heavy artillery. Later, in the seventeenth century, Louis XIV built the larger Fort Saint-Jean around the tower — not to protect the city from the sea but to watch it: the fort's guns pointed inward at the city rather than out, after Marseille rebelled against royal authority. The city has not forgotten that. Practical points: the tower sits within Fort Saint-Jean, which belongs to the MuCEM, and entry to the fort's grounds is normally free. The tower itself may not be climbable. The fort connects to the MuCEM by a footbridge.
A simple, effective answer in Mediterranean harbours before heavy artillery.
Louis XIV built the fort to watch the city, not to protect it.
The tower is fifteenth-century; the fort around it is seventeenth.
Within Fort Saint-Jean, at the mouth of the old port