Chapelle et hospice de la Vieille Charité
MonumentHidden Treasure
Chapelle et hospice de la Vieille Charité, located in Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône), is a Renaissance château built in the 16th century. The monument is currently closed to visitors.
Key facts
- Type
- autre
- Period
- Renaissance (16th century)
- Location
- Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 43.3005, 5.3679
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00081331
The baroque jewel of Old Marseilles, the Vieille Charité unfurls its three levels of gilded galleries around a chapel with an oval dome, an absolute masterpiece by Pierre Puget. A jewel box of gilded stone in the heart of the Panier district.
History
Nestling in the heart of the Panier district, Marseille's oldest, the Vieille Charité is one of the most accomplished examples of southern French Baroque architecture. Its vast quadrilateral of superimposed galleries in Cassis stone, a luminous ochre in the Provencal sunshine, is built around an inner courtyard dominated by the central chapel, a veritable apotheosis of Pierre Puget's art. The building combines monumental grandeur and ornamental grace with rare coherence, without ever sinking into over-emphasis. What fundamentally sets the Vieille Charité apart from other hospices of the period is the exceptional quality of its architectural design. Where public charity was usually content with functional buildings, Marseilles had an institution worthy of a palace: three levels of semi-circular arches punctuated by Doric, Ionic and Corinthian pilasters superimposed according to the classical rule, in a skilful progression towards the sky. The sobriety of the galleries highlights the sculptural exuberance of the chapel, whose elliptical dome topped by a lantern seems to float above the courtyard. Now converted into a major cultural centre, the Vieille Charité is home to two first-rate museums: the Museum of Mediterranean Archaeology, which boasts some of the most important Egyptian, Greek and Roman collections in France outside Paris, and the Museum of African, Oceanic and Amerindian Arts. A visit here will take you on a journey through time and space, from Pharaonic Egypt to pre-Columbian civilisations, in a setting of striking beauty. The visitor experience is inseparable from the unique atmosphere of the Panier, a labyrinth of narrow streets where the history of Marseille is written on every façade. Strolling through the galleries of the Charité at a time when the late afternoon light gilds the stone of Cassis, listening to the unusually preserved silence of the inner courtyard despite the proximity of the Old Port: this is an experience that escapes ordinary tourism to touch something essential in our relationship with beauty and time.
Architecture
The architecture of the Vieille Charité is part of the French classicist Baroque movement, tinged with Italian influences that Pierre Puget assimilated during his stays in Genoa and Rome. The general plan is that of a regular closed quadrilateral, organised into four two- to three-storey wings served by galleries of superimposed arcades opening onto a vast inner courtyard. Cassis stone, a golden-white limestone extracted from the Cap Canaille quarries to the east of Marseille, gives the building its warm colour and resistance to the Mediterranean weather. The three levels of galleries follow the canonical superimposition of ancient orders - Doric on the ground floor, Ionic on the first floor, Corinthian on the second - in an ascending progression of classical rigour tempered by elegant proportions. The central chapel is the artistic culmination of the project. Elliptical in plan, it rises to two levels punctuated by Corinthian pilasters and crowned by a richly moulded entablature. Its oval dome, supported on a drum pierced by round-headed windows, reaches a height of around 25 metres and is topped by a squat lantern with strong Baroque lines. The chapel's entrance portal, framed by engaged columns and surmounted by a broken pediment adorned with allegorical figures sculpted in the tradition of Puget, is the most expressly Baroque feature of the ensemble. The interior, sober and luminous, has lost most of its original painted decoration but retains the fullness of its elliptical space bathed in zenithal light filtered through the lantern.
Related Figures
Pierre Puget (1620-1694) — sculpteur et architecte marseillais, auteur du projet initial, considéré comme le plus grand artiste baroque français du XVIIe siècleFrançois Puget (1651-1707) — fils de Pierre, qui poursuit le chantier après la mort de son père et conduit la chapelle vers son achèvementLes échevins de Marseille — commanditaires de l'édifice, représentants d'une élite marchande soucieuse d'ordre social et de prestige urbain au XVIIe siècleLouis XIV — dont l'édit de 1662 sur le Grand Renfermement des pauvres impulse directement la création de l'hospiceLe Corbusier — architecte suisse-français qui, lors de ses séjours à Marseille pour la construction de l'Unité d'Habitation, milite pour la sauvegarde et la restauration de la Vieille Charité dans les années 1940-1950André Allar — sculpteur marseillais du XIXe siècle dont certaines œuvres enrichissent les collections du musée installé dans l'édifice
Tags
Nearby castles
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Chapelle et hospice de la Vieille Charité located?
Chapelle et hospice de la Vieille Charité is located in Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône department, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, France.
When was Chapelle et hospice de la Vieille Charité built?
Chapelle et hospice de la Vieille Charité dates back to a period built during the Renaissance (16th century).
Is Chapelle et hospice de la Vieille Charité open to visitors?
Chapelle et hospice de la Vieille Charité is currently closed to visitors.
