Marseille for Culture Lovers: Eight Places That Hold the City's Memory

Marseille is around 2,600 years old and has never been a museum piece, which is exactly what makes its culture interesting. The art here is bound up with the port, the migrations and the arguments. Take these eight in roughly this order and the city starts to make sense.

• Best base for all of them: the Vieux-Port, on foot or by tram
• Allow: two full days, three if you add the islands
• Most museums: closed one day a week, commonly Monday — check before setting out

1. MuCEM

The Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisations opened in 2013, the year Marseille was European Capital of Culture, and it changed the city. Rudy Ricciotti wrapped the seafront J4 building in a dark concrete lattice that throws shifting shadows, then linked it by high footbridge to the old Fort Saint-Jean. Go for the architecture even if the exhibition is not to your taste.

2. Notre-Dame de la Garde

The Neo-Byzantine basilica on the city highest point, crowned by a gilded Virgin the locals call la Bonne Mère. Inside, the walls are hung with sailors ex-votos, model ships and painted thanks for storms survived. The view alone justifies the climb.

3. La Vieille Charité

Pierre Puget seventeenth-century almshouse in the heart of Le Panier, three tiers of arcades around a domed chapel. It now holds the Museum of Mediterranean Archaeology and the museum of African, Oceanian and Amerindian arts. The courtyard is one of the calmest spaces in Marseille.

4. Cité Radieuse

Le Corbusier Unité d Habitation, completed in 1952 on Boulevard Michelet, and inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list in 2016 as part of the architect serial listing. Still a lived-in apartment building, with a rooftop generally open to visitors alongside a small hotel and an art space.

5. Château d If

The island fortress built in the 1520s and 30s, later a prison, and immortalised by Dumas in The Count of Monte Cristo. Boats leave from the Vieux-Port; sailings depend on the weather, so it is worth having a backup plan when the mistral blows.

6. Cathédrale de la Major

The vast striped Neo-Byzantine cathedral on the edge of the Joliette docks, all green and white banded stone. Slightly absurd in scale, and a useful reminder of how rich the nineteenth-century port became.

7. Musée Cantini

A seventeenth-century mansion holding the city modern collection, particularly strong on Fauvism, Cubism and Surrealism. Small, quiet, and consistently underrated by visitors.

8. The Ombrière on the Vieux-Port

Norman Foster mirrored steel canopy, installed in 2013, that reflects the quay, the boats and everyone standing under it. Not a museum, but the most democratic piece of public art in the city and the natural place to end a day.

Tip: Pair MuCEM with the Vieille Charité on the same morning. They sit either side of Le Panier, and walking between them through the ochre lanes is half the point.