Fort Saint-Jean (Marseille)

History

Fort Saint-Jean in Marseille takes its name from the Knights Hospitaller of Saint John, who previously occupied the site. It was built at the same time as Fort Saint-Nicolas, located across the harbor. King Louis XIV commented that the people of Marseille seemed very fond of fine fortresses, so he wanted his own at the harbor entrance. In truth, both forts were built not for defense against outside enemies but in response to a local revolt against the governor. Their cannons were aimed inward toward the city, not outward to the sea. The fort incorporates two older structures: a twelfth-century commandry of the Knights Hospitaller, which served as a monastic hospice during the crusades, and a fifteenth-century tower built by King René I of Provence.

In April 1790, a revolutionary mob seized Fort Saint-Jean. They captured the commander of the royal garrison, the chevalier de Beausse, and decapitated him after he refused to surrender. During the French Revolution, the fort became a prison, holding Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, along with two of his sons, Louis-Charles, Count of Beaujolais, and Antoine Philippe, Duke of Montpensier. After Robespierre was overthrown in 1794, about one hundred Jacobin prisoners held there were massacred.

For most of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the French Army owned Fort Saint-Jean, using it as a barracks and a clearing station for the Army of Africa. From 1830 to 1962, when the French Foreign Legion was mainly based in North Africa, the fort was the last stop for recruits before they went to Algeria for basic training. During World War II, German forces occupied the fort in November 1942. In August 1944, as Marseille was being liberated, a munitions depot inside the fort exploded, destroying much of its historic battlements and buildings.

The fort was returned to the French Army but remained neglected and unused until it was handed over to the Ministry of Cultural Affairs in 1960. It was classified as a historical monument in 1964, and the damaged sections were rebuilt between 1967 and 1971. In 2013, Fort Saint-Jean became part of the Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisations, known as MuCEM.