MARSEILLE

also spelled Marseilles, ancient Massilia, or Massalia, city, capital of Bouches-du-Rhne dpartement. It is located on the Mediterranean's Gulf of Lion within a semicircle of limestone hills and lies 536 miles (863 kilometres) south-southeast of Paris by rail and 218 miles southeast of Lyon. The city proper has an area of about 320 square miles (830 square kilometres). The metropolitan area (1,100 square miles) covers two-thirds of the dpartement. Founded more than 2,500 years ago, Marseille has a history of vigorous independence asserted against central authority in a variety of forms. It retained its status as a free city even after falling to Julius Caesar's troops in the 1st century BC, and after centuries of decline it was revived and allowed great independence under the local control of the viscounts of Provence in the 10th14th centuries. After Provence joined the Kingdom of France in the 15th century, Marseille retained a separate administration and continually engaged in spirited revolt against kings or governments that threatened its liberties. It was for this reason that in 1800, when France was divided into the present administrative dpartements, Marseille was only reluctantly granted its status as capital of the Bouches-du-Rhne. Frenchmen elsewhere, convinced that the Mediterranean climes of Provence could never be fully integrated into either the French realm or the Gallic spirit, long looked upon Marseille as a sort of folkloric institution: a place of comic anecdote and dialect, with a seasoning of picturesque criminality; a place where the citizens played a peculiar form of outdoor bowling known as ptanque and concocted the glorious garlic- and saffron-flavoured fish stew known as bouillabaisse. By whatever proportion fact may have been coloured with myth in its image, Marseille undoubtedly forms a major element in the economic and social structure of France. It is the second largest city proper and the largest commercial seaport of France, and the associated development at Fos-sur-Mer, about 23 miles to the northwest, has bid since the 1970s to rival Rotterdam as a transit port for all of Europe. Under the Socialist mayor Gaston Defferre, whose administration, from 1953 until his death in 1986, was the longest in its history, Marseille developed as a prosperous modern city. Blake Ehrlich Robin Caron Buss also spelled Marseilles, ancient Massilia, or Massalia city, capital of Bouches-du-Rhne dpartement and the second largest city in France. Located along the coast of the Cte d'Azur region and west of the French Riviera, Marseille is one of the Mediterranean's major seaports. Settled by Greeks from Asia Minor during the 7th century BC, Marseille is the oldest of France's major cities. It was annexed by the Romans, who called it Massilia, in the 1st century BC; after the decline of the Roman Empire, it deteriorated almost to extinction but was revived as an important commercial port of departure during the Crusades (11th through 14th century AD). Situated along the northern shoreline of the Mediterranean Sea, Marseille has a climate that is characteristic of the region. The mean monthly temperatures average about 72 F (22 C) during the warm summer period and 45 F (7 C) during the winter, with most of the annual rainfall of 22 inches (560 mm) coming in the spring and autumn. A canal links the city with the tang de Berre (a large tidal lake and Marseille's modern harbour), which is in turn connected by canal with the Rhne River to the northwest. Great impetus was lent to Mediterranean shipping through Marseille by the French conquest of Algeria (1830), which eliminated the Barbary pirates, and by the completion of the Suez Canal (1869); thereafter Marseille's development as an important port city was rapid. Although the port facilities were largely destroyed by German mines during World War II, they were rebuilt and expanded afterward. The city has since become the centre of a large geographic-economic region (the RhneAlpsCte d'Azur), and regional planning has been replacing programs on the municipal level. Industrial construction projects such as the Sud-European oil pipeline (linking the city to Germany and Switzerland) and a huge steelworks, as well as its large oil-refining capacity and growth in its chemical industries, have exemplified a major shift in Marseille's economic and political importance. Despite the city's rapid growth following the war and the loss of much of its quaintness, the heart of its historic centreOld Port (Vieux-Port)is still reminiscent of the colourful past. Fishermen hawk their daily catch (including such local delicacies as squid and eel), and the port entrance is guarded by the 18th-century command post Fort-Saint-Jean. On a hill overlooking the port is the Basilica of Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde (dating from the 8th century and rebuilt in 1853). Other historic buildings dotting the Old Port are the Cathdrale de la Major, dating primarily from the 12th century, and the Hospice de la Vielle Charit, a charity hospital built between 1660 and 1750. During the century preceding 1953, no important thoroughfare was constructed in Marseille (the width of older streets averages 19 1/2 feet ). Since then, widened thoroughfares, elevated highways, a subway system, and road tunnels (including one under the Old Port) have been built. The major harbour area, at the tang de Berre, and Marignane Airport are almost 20 miles (32 km) northwest of the city centre. Area city, 93 square miles (242 square km); metropolitan area, 321 square miles (830 square km). Pop. (1990) city, 807,726; (1990 prelim.) metropolitan area, 1,087,000. Additional reading General works Douglas Goldring, The South of France: The Lower Rhne Valley and the Mediterranean Seaboard from Martigues to Menton (1952), contains a description of Marseille and environs; Alfred Firth, French Life & Landscape, vol. 2, Southern France (1953), contains a brief discussion of the city and its inhabitants; Paul Carrre and Raymond Dugrand, La Rgion Mditerranenne, 2nd rev. ed. (1967), deals with the city's industrial region; Archibald Lyall, The Companion Guide to the South of France, 3rd ed. rev. and expanded by A.N. Brangham (1972, reissued 1983), includes a discussion of the topography, principal monuments, and cultural institutions of Marseille; Germaine Krull, Marseille (1935), is a collection of photographs with text by Andr Suars; Ian B. Thompson, The Lower Rhone and Marseille (1975); M.F.K. Fisher, A Considerable Town (1978), presents vignettes on the city and its people; Andr Remacle, Marseille coeur ouvert (1981), gives the personal view of a Marseille journalist and deals with the character and history of the city; and Gilbert Rochu, Marseille, les annes Defferre (1983), is a critical analysis of the administration of the city in the period since World War II. History Gaston Rambert (ed.), Histoire du commerce de Marseille, 6 vol. (194959); Raoul Busquet, Histoire de Marseille, rev. ed. updated by Pierre Guiral (1977); Lucien Gaillard, Marseille sous l'occupation (1982), covers the occupation years of World War II and is illustrated with contemporary photographs and reproductions of documents; and Pierre Guiral and Paul Amargier, Histoire de Marseille (1983), contains a chapter on current politics and problems. Blake Ehrlich Robin Caron Buss