Fort St-Nicolas and Fort St-Jean

Fort St-Nicolas and Fort St-Jean Review

At the entrance to the Vieux Port, you'll find these twin forts. In order to keep the feisty, rebellious Marseillais under his thumb, Louis XIV had the fortresses built with the guns pointing toward the city. The Marseillais, whose identity has always been mixed with a healthy dose of irony, are quite proud of this display of the king's (later justified) doubts about their allegiance. To view the guns, climb up to the Jardin du Pharo. Sometime in 2013 the Fort St-Jean will open under the banner of the Musée National des Civilisations de L'Europe et de la Mediterranée, exposing the folk-art collection of the former Musée des Arts et Traditions Populaires in Paris.