Marseille History Museum

This place is 100%. The museum starts with Greek occupation. 600 BC or so. This museum keeps moving into our history. It ends with modern history. And there was photographie exhibition of Marseillaise photo history thru one family- 3 générations of photographers. Famille Detaille. And- a pétanque exhibition- largely the photos of one guy. And, Archeological ruins. You could be here for hours. Enjoy.

This museum presents a history of human occupation of the site of the city of Marseille. Visiting gives you a great context for exploring and enjoying the city. It's amazing to recognize the shape of the harbor and see it reoccur in so many paintings, prints, maps, and models. The ruins of the Greek and Roman harbor are in a large fenced area included with the museum. The museum itself contains the remains of boats from that period. When we visited there were also temporary exhibits that added to appreciation of the city, one on photography and another on the game of petanque. Interestingly the museum also opens into an adjustment shopping mall.

Entrance is free so that is always nice. The exhibition is somewhat interesting and quite diverse. Some exhibits were missing and there were no captions in English, but overall a nice place to visit. I would not say it is a must visit, but if you have some time to kill go ahead.

I enjoyed my visit to Marseille's History Museum, displays are laid out thoughtfully and with plenty of space to move around. I especially enjoyed the models of the excavation sites, and the displays of the tombs. It was a little confusing about where to go, I went up the ramp and into the Mall, and then I had to figure out how to get into the Museum! Maybe more signs outside would help.

In a city that is rich in history, it was very rewarding to find a well planned and presented museum. Enter the grounds through the park (not the shopping mall) to see the layout of the ancient port. Excavated walls and buildings are described on plaques to help visualize. Inside you will proceed from earliest archeological finds to modern day. The modern day presentation is poor and lacking but that isn't why you should go to a history museum, is it. Early on you'll encounter the remains of two ancient ships along with video presentations that can be heard through earphone devices available at the entrance. Models have been build to demonstrate how the ship looked when it was in use. The videos include how it was used, the importance of them to ancient Marseille, and the process of discovering and protecting them. The museum is broken into stages that each have a marker showing the dates and most important events. At each stage, there is an audio and sometimes video explanation to add to the exhibits.

Free entry. Large museum. A lot of history. Boat ruins, stones, pottery, etc. Glad I went. Oh, btw, you can exit into a shopping mall if you choose to. Friendly people at the front desk. They even offered to put my small backpack in a locker and gave me the key to retrieve it. Photography was allowed but no flash.

I got a chance to visit I the museum for free and I am very glad. It’s one of the most interesting approach to show the marine history of the city through such ship installations I have ever seen. Several levels of the museum guide you through its history. I was a bit disappointed that the latest history (1970s) is not yet available

This is an outstanding history museum with a great entertainment and educational value. Definitely take advantage of the excellent audio guide. The museum is laid out chronologically in the setting of an archeological location of a roman port. It guides through the history of Marseille from prehistory through today. The physical displays are supported by really good multimedia content, which allows you to deep dive on specific topics. The displays are relevant, interesting, clearly marked (French only unfortunately). The highlight was the audio guide. It covered the thematic areas giving the overview and noting the key artifacts. It was sufficiently in-depth giving great explanations of each period, the historical context of the artifacts, and supporting stories. Very rich content presented in an accessible but not dumbed-down manner. Great job, museum! Overall, it is definitely among the best city history museums. Highly recommend. Note, if visiting on the day the mall is closed, go through the gatehouse on the archeological side. The signs are misleading.