Marseille Museums

Africain, Oceanic and American-Indians Art - Musée d'Arts Africains, Océaniens et Amérindiens

Location: Located inside the Old Charity Cultural Center; 2, rue de la Charité

Open: June-Sept 11h-18h; Oct-May 10h-17h

Entry: about 2€

Tel: 0491 145 838; Fax: 04.91.14.58.82

Email: cmizrahi@mairie-marseille.fr

Marseilles and Paris are the only two French towns with museums dedicated to these areas. the art presented here is principally primitive: from a people without a written language, generally animalistic religions and non-western.

Jules Cantini Museum - Musée Cantini

Location: 19 Rue Grignan (about 6 blocks south of La Canebiére, near Rue Breteuil).

Metro: Estrangin / Préfecture

Open: June-Sept 11h-18h; Oct-May 10h-17h

Closed: Mondays and holidays

Entry: About 2€; temporary exhibits about 3€

Tel: 0491 547 775; Fax: 04 91 55 03 01

The museum is housed in the 17th-century Hôtel de Montgrand, which sculptor Jules Cantine donated to the city along with his collection of art. A tremendous collection, of sculptures, paintings, collages and faïence, by just about everybody.

Château Borély

Closed for renovation until 2006. It's being renovated to be the Museum of Decorative Arts, and will start with the theme "the art of living in Provence in the 18th and 19th centuries".

Location: South of the center, near the beach "Plage du Prado" (the lower edge of our map).; 134, avenue Clot Bey

Bus: 19, 20.

Tel: 0491 252 634

Château Borély is in the 40-hectare Parc Borély, the largest in Marseilles. The Borely family built the chateau in 1766 on what was then the rural domain of Bonneveine. The building was an archeological museum from 1863 to 1989.

Contemporary Art Museum - Musée d'Art Contemporain (MAC)

Location: 69, avenue de Haïfa

Bus: 23, 45; Access for the handicapped

Open: June-Sept 11h-18h; Oct-May 10h-17h; guided visits Wed, Sat, Sun, 15h.

Closed: Mondays and holidays

Tel: (0)4 912 107; Fax: (0)4 91.72.17.27

Art from the 1960's New Realism to the present.

Death-Camps Memorial - Mémorial des Camps de la Mort

Location: between the Esplanade de la Tourette and the Fort Saint-Jean, in a WW2 blockhouse.

Métro: Vieux-Port; Bus 83; Easy access for handicapped and elderly, with elevator to the top level.

Open: June-Sept 11h-18h; Oct-May 10h-17h

Closed: Mondays and holidays

Tel: 0491 907 315

Memories of Marseilles under the Occupation. Roundup of Jews. Evacuation and destruction of the Old Port. Resistance actions and bombings. Comments on Nazisme and the French State.

Faïence ceramics Museum - Musée de la Faïence

Location: 157, avenue de Montredon

Bus: 19

Open: June-Sept 11h-18h; Oct-May 10h-17h

Closed: Mondays and holidays

Tel: 0491 724 347; Fax: 04 91 72 53 58

Located in a 19th-century bastide, this museum has been open to the public only since 1995. The faïence ceramics displayed here, of a type originating in the 13th century, first appeared in Provence at the end of the 17th century. Its a similar type of faïence to that found in Moustiers, la Tour d'Aigues, Aubagne, Apt, Castellet, et Varages.

Fashion Museum of Marseille - Musée de la Mode de Marseille

Location: [Old Port] 11, La Canebière

Métro : Vieux-Port. Handicapped access.

Open: June-Sept 11h-18h; Oct-May 10h-17h

Entry: Temporary exhibits 3 €; kids 10-16, students, familles nombreuses: half price.

Tel: 0496 170 600; Fax: 04 96 17 06 01

Email: srichoux@mairie-marseille.fr

Assembled from the patrimon of Marseilles and the Institut Mode Méditerranée, the collection includes over 6'000 costumes and accessories. The collection was moved to its new location in 2004, and an ongoing project of analysis and renovation of the articles will take another few years. The exhibits will probably vary according to availablility.

Fine Arts Museum - Musée des Beaux-Arts

Closed for renovation.

Location: At the Palais Longchamp, up the steps on the left.

Bus: 81, 41

Open: June-Sept 11h-18h; Oct-May 10h-17h

Closed: Mondays and holidays

Entry: about 2€, Sunday mornings free

Tel: 0491 145 930; Fax: 04 91 14 59 31

Marseilles' Fine Arts Museum, created just after the Revolution, is one of the oldest in France. It has been located in the left wing of the Palais Longchamp since 1869. Collections include French 17th and 18th century, Provence 17th century, Italian 16th and 17th century, and French 19th century.

Grobet-Labadié Museum - Musée Grobet-Labadié

Location: Boulevard Longchamp, Place H. Dunant, in front of the Palais Longchamp.

Metro: Longchamp/Cinq-Avenues

Open: June-Sept 11h-18h; Oct-May 10h-17h

Closed: Mondays and holidays

Entry: about 2€, Sunday mornings free

Tel: 0491 622 182; Fax: 04 91 95 60 31

The museum is housed in the private 1873 town house of Louis Grobet and Marie-Louise Labadié. The collection includes 15C-19C European-school drawings, 16C-18C French and Flemish tapestries and furniture, 17C-19C paintings, and 18C faïence from Marseilles and Moustiers-Ste-Marie.

History of Marseilles Museum - Musée d'Histoire de Marseille

Location: Square Belsunce, inside the "mall" of the Centre Bourse.

Metro: Vieux-Port

Open: Mon-Sat 12h-19h. Library (Bibliothèque/ Vidéothèque) Tue-Sat 12h-19h.

Closed: Sundays and holidays

Entry: about 2€

Tel: 0491 904 222; Fax: 04 91 90 43 78

Email: musee-histoire@mairie-marseille.fr

Archaeological exhibits, models and documents trace the Provencal history of Marseilles from prehistoric to Gallo-Roman times. The main exhibit is centered around a genuine 26-meter Roman merchant vessel. This museum has a permanent exposition of the Cosquer Grotto. Accès handicapés

Maritime and Commercial Museum of Marseilles - Musée de la Marine et de l'Economie de Marseille

Location: On the ground floor of the stock exchange (Bourse). Palais de la Bourse, 9 La Canebière;

Open: Every day 10h 18h

Entry: about 2€, kids 1€, under 12 free

Tel: 0491 393 333

Email: patrimoine@marseille-provence.cci.fr

Maritime history and the history of Marseilles, especially from the 17th century to the present. The model boats are outstanding.

Mediterranian Archeology Museum - Musée d'Archéologie Méditerranéenne

Location: Located inside the Old Charity Cultural Center; 2 rue de la Charité

Open: June-Sept 11h-18h; Oct-May 10h-17h

Closed: Mondays and holidays

Entry: about 2€

Tel: 0491 145 880; Fax: 04 91 14 58 76

A panorama of ancient civilizations bordering the Mediterranean basin. The collection of Egyptian antiquities is the biggest in Provence, second in France only to the Louvre. A Celtic-Ligurian section with 3rd-century-BC artifacts discovered at Velaux, about 28 km northwest of Marseilles. A Classic Antiquity collection, including the Near-East, Greece, Cyprus and Etruria.

Motorcycle Museum - Musée de la Moto

Location: 18 traverse St Paul, Quartier le Merlan , at the northen edge of the city.

RTM Bus : 32, 32barré, 38; 34 bus from the Bourse, to the end of the line

Open: Every day 10h-17h

Closed: Mondays and holidays

Entry: about 2€; kids, reductions about 1.10€

Tel: 0491 022 955

The museum, opened in 1989, follows the mechanical and motorcycle evolution from 1898 until the present. The building itself, an old flour mill (minoterie) is a fine example of 19th-century industrial archecture. The collection of 120 bikes inclues: all motorcycles Nougier of 1936-1971; Triumph T120 Bonneville; the last and only Peugeot Grand Prix 1923; the Jonghi de Monneret (inspiring Johnny Holliday and Coluche).

Natural History Museum - Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle

Location: At the Palais Longchamp, up the steps on the right.

Open: Every day 10h-17h

Closed: Mondays and most holidays

Tel: 0491 145 950; Fax: 04 91 14 59 51

Marseilles' Natural History Museum was created in 1819, by the mayor Marquis de Montgrand and Count de Villeneuve-Bargemon. The museum's Science Library (bibliothèque scientifique) was created in 1879 by Edouard Heckel.

Old Charity Cultural Center - Centre de la Vieille Charité

Set in the heart of the "Panier" district is a beautiful, baroque chapel in a large courtyard surrounded by a building with three-tiered arched balconies, all made of a rose or yellow tinted Couronne stone. Entrance is free to wander around in the courtyard, and visit the book store or stop at the café. Museums located in the "Charité" building include the Museum of Mediterranean Archaeology.

The Vieille Charité was built from 1671 to 1749 (and never actually finished) to house the poor and needy.

Includes the Museum of Mediterranean Archaeology, the Museum of African, South Seas and American Indian Arts, and Temporary Exhibits

Location: Quartier Panier, 2 rue de la Charité

Open: June-Sept, 11h-18h; Oct-May, 10h-17h

Closed: Mondays, holidays

Entry: Temporary Exhibits, , about 4 € Museum of Mediterranean Archaeology, about 2 € Museum of African, South Seas and American Indian Arts, , about 2 €

Tel: 0491 562 838

Old-Marseilles Museum - Musée du Vieux-Marseille - Maison Diamantée

Location: Rue de la Prison, Old Port, In the 16th-century Maison Diamantée, behind the old Hôtel de Ville.

Metro: Vieux-Port; Bus 83, 49B

Open: June-Sept, 11h-18h; Oct-May, 10h-17h

Entry: about 2€, Sunday mornings free

Tel: 0491 552 868; Fax: 04.91.55.28.66

The "Maison Diamantée" is a 16th-century house in a prestigious position at the heart of the Old-Port quarter, along with the Hotel de Ville. This museum has a relief model of Old Marseilles from 1848, sections of 18th-century Provençal furniture and objects, and a section of 19th-century paintings and costumes. At the end of the 19th-c, a group of Marsellais, "Lou Cremascle" (la crémaillère,which is the rod for hanging the cooking pot inside the fireplace, and a symbol of the home) collected around the kitchen of fishermen rare and ancient objects, symbols of Provencal life and traditions. There's also a very large collection of santons from 1830 to the early 1900s.

Popular Arts and Traditions Museum - Musée des Arts et Traditions Populaires du Terroir Marseillais

Location: Château-Gombert, 5 Place des Héros - 11 km northeast of the center; via Ave de St Just and Ave de Château-Gombert.

last stop on Metro-1

Open: Mon, Wed, Thur, Fri 9h-12h-18h30; Sat-Sun 14h30-18h30 (except holidays)

Closed: Tuesdays

Entry: 3.10 €; kids, groups (20 people) 1.60 €; guided visits: 4.60 €.

Tel: 0491 681 438

Email: museechateaugombert@free.fr

The Chàteau-Gombert sits across a shady square from a 17th-century church. The chàteau houses a museum, with rooms displayed in period style, with examples of famous local faïence ceramics among the many every-day items.

Préau des Accoules Children's Museum - Le Préau des Accoules - Espace muséal des enfants

Location: 29, montée des Accoules

Metro: Vieux-Port

Open: Public: Wed, Sat afternoons 13h30-17h30; School groups: Mon-Fri by rendez-vous.

Entry: Free; events (animations) 14h-16h by inscription.

Tel: 0491 915 206

The Préau des Accoules is a children's museum located in the old building of the Académie de Marseille (1782/83). every year two thematic expositions are presented expressly for the young.

Roman Docks Museum - Musée des Docks Romains

Location: Place Vivaux, Old Port

Metro: Vieux-Port

Open: June-Sept 11h-18h; Oct-May 10h-17h

Closed: Mondays and Holidays

Entry: about 2€, Sunday mornings free

Tel: 0491 912 462

This museum houses, in situ, exhibits and artifacts from the Roman docks and warehouses that were discovered on this site in 1947. Objects date from Greek times to the middle ages, but center on the large earthenware jars (dolia) that filled the Roman warehouses and were used for storing oil, grain and wine. Other artifacts in the museum are from underwater archeological finds in the waters around Marseilles.

Santon Museum - Musée du santon

Location: 49, rue Neuve Sainte Catherine

Open: Mon-Sat 9h30-12h30, 14h-19h

Closed: Sundays

Entry: Free

Tel: 0491 136 136

Email: infomc@santonsmarcelcarbonel.com

Web: www.santonsmarcelcarbonel.com

The private collection of the famious "santonnier" Marcel Carbonel.

Transport Gallery - La Galerie des Transports

Location: [Canebière] Gare Noailles, Place du marché des Capucins

Metro Noailles; easy access for the handicapped.

Open: Tue-Sun

Closed: Mondays and holidays

Entry: Free.

Tel: 0491 541 515

The museum, located in the old "Gare de l'Est" railway station where the young Marcel Pagnol departed on the tramway for the "Collines", presents the history of urban transportation of Marseilles, from the first horse-drawn obnibus to the modern metro (subway).