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Marseille Durable
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A walk through Vauban's travioles from Notre-Dame de la Garde

Cultural, Pedestrian sports, Hiking itinerary in Marseille 6ème
1.5 km
30min
Medium

  • Perched on the foothills of the Colline de la Garde, the Vauban district oscillates between tradition and modernity. With its "village" feel, you'll find renowned gourmet shops and designer boutiques.

  • The starting point for this urban hike is the path that leads down beside the large cross at the foot of Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde. This is where the funicular once started.

    Pedestrian signposts make it easy to follow the route, which is all downhill, taking in the discreet alleyways and little-known staircases that Marseille is famous for.
    At rue Edmond Rostand, you enter the Antiquaires district and reach Place Castellane.
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Points of interest
1 Starting point
The starting point for this urban walk is the site of the old funicular access platform. It looked like the beginning of a bridge - the technical term is "an abutment" - from which passengers boarded the lift. You have to imagine that in the extension of the cross was a metal footbridge, built by Gustave Eiffel, 100 metres long and 5 metres wide, overlooking the vertiginous slope.

The Basilique Notre-Dame de la Garde was built in 1852 on the site of an ancient sacred grove, a chapel and a military watchtower. It was in 1864 that it began to welcome the public. From the outset, the site was a great success. More and more visitors and pilgrims arrived. The horse-drawn omnibuses were no longer sufficient to transport them from the Cours Saint-Louis. Another solution had to be found. Numerous projects were submitted to the town council, which decided to build a hydraulic funicular railway. The departure station was located at 44, rue Jules Moulet. It operated for 75 years, between 1892 and 1967, carrying more than 20 million passengers. The increase in car traffic and the slowness of the journey put a strain on the finances and profitability of this facility. On 11 September 1967, it carried its last passengers. It was demolished in 1974. The lower station and its garden gave way to a social housing complex designed in 1986 by Mario Fabre. There is a wide range of literature on this funicular, and it is easy to find old photographs of it.
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2 The cottages on Montée Notre-Dame
The starting point for this urban walk is the site of the old funicular access platform. It looked like the beginning of a bridge - the technical term is "an abutment" - from which passengers boarded the lift. You have to imagine that in the extension of the cross was a metal footbridge, built by Gustave Eiffel, 100 metres long and 5 metres wide, overlooking the vertiginous slope.

The Basilique Notre-Dame de la Garde was built in 1852 on the site of an ancient sacred grove, a chapel and a military watchtower. It was in 1864 that it began to welcome the public. From the outset, the site was a great success. More and more visitors and pilgrims arrived. The horse-drawn omnibuses were no longer sufficient to transport them from the Cours Saint-Louis. Another solution had to be found. Numerous projects were submitted to the town council, which decided to build a hydraulic funicular railway. The departure station was located at 44, rue Jules Moulet. It operated for 75 years, between 1892 and 1967, carrying more than 20 million passengers. The increase in car traffic and the slowness of the journey put a strain on the finances and profitability of this facility. On 11 September 1967, it carried its last passengers. It was demolished in 1974. The lower station and its garden gave way to a social housing complex designed in 1986 by Mario Fabre. There is a wide range of literature on this funicular, and it is easy to find old photographs of it.
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3 André Suarès staircase
This staircase was built in the 19th century to adapt to the gradient of the Vauban district. It links Montée Notre-Dame and Boulevard Notre-Dame and pays tribute to the Marseille poet and writer André Suarès, whose book "Marisho" is a rather modern travelogue of 1930s Marseille.
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4 Place Valère Bernard
This square is located in the heart of the Vauban district, at the junction of boulevard Vauban and boulevard Notre-Dame. There are many small shops nearby and a village atmosphere. Many of the buildings have 3 windows.
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5 Shed and vine in rue Beaujour
Until the end of the 14th century, the monks of Saint-Victor Abbey owned a large area of land in what is now the Vauban district, where they grew vines. The water-poor limestone soils made this cultivation possible. At 2 rue Beaujour, you pass a small house that used to be a "vineyard shed". The rudimentary construction allowed winegrowers to store their tools or take shelter during a break or a heavy downpour.
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6 Rue Paradis et Noilly Prat
Marseille has three north-south streets of varying lengths, running through several districts: rue de Rome, rue Paradis and rue Breteuil. Throughout the 19th century, Marseille underwent transformations as the city grew and expanded southwards. Rue Breteuil and Rue Paradis were among these extensions. From 1860 onwards, rue Paradis 150 and 167 were home to the Noilly Prat factory, which produced a wine-based aperitif that is no longer drunk today: Vermouth, more simply known as Noilly Prat. The factory covered an area of 10,000m² and employed over 100 workers. When the men in the family died, it was a woman who found herself at the head of the company: Anne Rosine Prat, née Noilly. She was only 34 when she was widowed with 3 children to support. At the age of 40, she lost her father. Over the next 37 years, she built up the business founded by her father (Louis Noilly) and developed by her husband (Claudius Prat). She was a competent businesswoman and a generous benefactress. Each year, 600,000 litres of wine were donated to the church for mass, and she founded asylums for sick women and poor girls.
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7 Saint-Suffren Statue
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8 Rue des Vignerons
In the past, this street was used to reach the vineyards on the eastern slopes of Notre-Dame de la Garde hill. In what is now the Vauban district, there was a great deal of agricultural activity.
9 Square Edmond Rostand
This square pays tribute to the author Edmond Rostand, who was born in Marseille, at 14 rue Rostand (to reach the family home, you have to go down the street following the direction of traffic). Needless to say, he wrote the famous play "Cyrano de Bergerac". The artist Jacqueline Sarto created the small bronze bust that has paid tribute to him since 1993. It stands on the central pillar of the fence that marks the boundary of the square.
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10 Rue Saint-Suffren
The first name of this street was "rue des vendangeurs". The name was changed after the French Revolution. In fact, the last cooper on this street worked until 1940, in a workshop located between rue Paradis and rue Edmond Rostand.

Saint-Suffren was abbot of Saint-Victor church in the 11th century for 31 years. A statuette of him dressed as a bishop, located at the corner of rue Paradis and rue Saint-Suffren (the itinerary does not take you through this street), pays tribute to him.
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11 Virgin and Child
An example of this type of statue can be seen on the corner of rue Saint-Suffren and rue de Rome. Marseille was deeply affected by the plague in 1720, when almost half its population died. This is one of the reasons for the abundance of corner niches at street crossings, housing statues of patron saints and Virgins. These works are comparable to urban oratories, where the population used to gather, pray and receive collective blessings to protect them from epidemics, famine and other disasters. There are over 300 of them in the whole of Marseille. So keep your eyes peeled!
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12 Place Castellane
This lively square links the city centre to the residential areas of the Prado. The square is alive with metro and tram services, restaurants, cinemas and markets. People meet here at all hours of the day and night. In 1911, Marseille marble-maker Jules Cantini donated the monumental fountain, whose main effigy is Marseille, enthroned at the top of the column surrounded by the Mediterranean, the Durance, the Rhône and the Gardon.

The fountain is located on a long axis that crosses Marseille for more than 6 kilometres, offering a view of two emblematic monuments: the Porte d'Aix (to the north) and the Mazargues obelisk (to the south).
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