Digging up the present in Marseille's old port: Toward an archaeology of reconstruction

Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians

Volumn 63, Issue 3, 2004, Pages

  Crane, Sheila ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA   (United States)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 60949845852     PISSN: 00379808     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/4127973     Document Type: Review

References (111)

1. Émile Isnard, Marseille d'Hier et d'Aujourd'hui 1 (July 1946), 1.
2. These two categories directly or indirectly inform much of the existingliterature on the postwar reconstruction in France, whether the individual studyfocuses on the architectural style of the new buildings, debates betweenregional and functionalist architecture, or questions of urban planning. See Anatole Kopp, Frédérique Boucher, and Danièle Pauly, eds., L'Architecture de la reconstruction en France, 1945-1953 (Paris, 1982);
3. Rémi Baudouï, "Between Regionalism and Functionalism:French Reconstruction from 1940-1945, " in Jeffrey M. Diefendorf, ed., Rebuilding Europe's Bombed Cities (New York, 1990), 31-47;
4. Danièle Voldman, "1945. Reconstuire des villes debéton ou en grès rose des Vosges?, " in Jean-Pierre Azéma et al., eds., Reconstructions et modernization. La Franceaprès les ruines, 1918 ... 1945 (Paris, 1991);
5. Patrick Dieudonné, ed., Villes reconstruites du dessin au destin, 2 vols. (Paris, 1994);
6. Danièle Voldman, La Reconstruction des villesfrançaises de 1940 à 1944. Histoire d'une politique (Paris, 1997).
7. Philippe Petout, "Saint-Malo. La Reconstruction d'une villehistorique, " in Dieudonné, Villes reconstruites, 1: 239-48.
8. Joe Nasr, "'La Réalité de la perception.' Changementsmorphologiques dans deux villes reconstruites (Saint-Malo et Le Havre), " in Rainer Hudemann and François Walter, eds., Villes et guerres mondialesen Europe au XIXe siècle (Paris, 1997), 177-89;
9. Joseph Abram, "Aux origines de l'atelier du Havre, " in Dieudonné, Villes reconstruites, 1: 95-108;
10. Sylvie Barot, "Archéologie d'une reconstruction.L'Exemple du Havre, " in Dieudonné, I: 109-15.
11. Alberto Ferlenga, "Fernand Pouillon (1912-1986), New Foundation ofthe City, New Foundation of a Discipline, " New City 3 (1996), 71-93;
12. Giulio Barazzetta, "Pouillon in Provenza, " Domus 773(July-Aug. 1995), 95-102.
13. The most important wave of Italian immigrants arrived in Marseillebetween the 1870s and the beginning of World War I. By the start of World War II, the Vieux-Port quarter was home to a substantial number of families of Italian origin and descent, many of whom were second- and third-generationresidents. For detailed investigations of the demographic and social structuresof the Vieux-Port quarter, see Marie-Françoise Attard-Maraninchi, LePanier, village corse à Marseille (Paris, 1997);
14. Marie-Françoise Attard-Maraninchi and Emile Temime, eds., Migrance. Histoire de migrations à Marseille, 4 vols. (Aix-en-Provence, 1989-90);
15. Andrée Crinière and Christian Oppetit, eds., Les Années 1930 à Marseille et dans le département des Bouches-du-Rhône (Marseille, 1987).
16. Albert Londres, Marseille. Porte du sud (Paris, 1927);
17. André Suarès, Marsiho (Paris, 1933);
18. Louis Blin, Marseille inconnu (Avignon, 1941).
19. Although the existing literature on Vichy is extensive, essential reviewsof the historiography include K. H. Adler, "Vichy Specificities:Repositioning the French Past, " Contemporary European History 9, no. 3(2000), 475-88;
20. Jean-Pierre Azéma, "Vichy et la mémoire savante.Quarante-cinq ans d'historiographie, " in Jean-Pierre Azéma and François Bédarida, eds., Vichy et les français (Paris, 1992), 23-44.
21. See Daniel Bénédite, La Filière marseillaise. UnChemin vers la liberté sous l'occupation (Paris, 1984);
22. Bernard Noël, Marseille-New York (Marseille, 1985);
23. Jean-Michel Guiraud, La Vie intellectuelle et artistique àMarseille à l'époque de Vichy et sous l'occupation (1940-1944)(Marseille, 1987).
24. Attard-Maraninchi and Temime, Migrance, 84-87;
25. Olivier Boura, Marseille, où la mauvaise réputation(Paris, 2001), 76-78.
26. An overview of Beaudouin's early career may be found in George Nelson, "Architects of Europe Today: Eugène Beaudouin, " Pencil Points(1936), 129-36.
27. For his early urban planning projects, see Eugène Beaudouin, "L'Urbanisme et l'architecture au Cap, " Construction Moderne 69 (Apr.1953), 133-35.
28. See Alrich Meyer, "Les Rafles de 1943 à Marseille. LeRôle de la Wehrmacht et l'intervention d'Himmler, " Provence Historique 44, no. 178 (Oct.-Dec. 1994), 489-95;
29. Alrich Meyer, Der Blick des Besatzers. Propagandaphotographie der Wehrmacht aus Marseille 1942-1944/Le Regard de l'occupant. Marseille vue par descorrespondants de guerre allemands, 1942-1944 (Bremen, 1999).
30. Donna F. Ryan, The Holocaust and the Jews of Marseille: The Enforcement of Anti-Semitic Policies in Vichy France (Urbana and Chicago, 1996), 177-93.
31. I have discussed the relationship between the urban plan for Marseilledeveloped in 1941-42 by the architecte-urbaniste Eugène Beaudouin and theevents of 1943 in greater detail in Sheila Crane, "Deciding Where to Drawthe Line: Urban Strategies and the Vieux-Port of Marseille, " in Simon Gunnand R. J. Morris, eds., Making Identities: Conflicts and Urban Space, 1800-2000(London, 2001), 39-59.
32. See "Discours de M. Jean Cristofol, Député-Maire, " Marseille. Revue Municipale 2, no. 4 (Sept. 1947), 11-12;
33. Jean Christofol, "Un Pas en avant, " Marseille. Revue Municipale2, no. 3 (July 1947), 5-6;
34. Austin Causse, "Marseille de toujours, " Marseille. Revue Municipale 3, no. 4 (1948), 3;
35. "Marseille décoré de la Croix de Guerre, "Marseille. Revue Municipale 3, no. 6 (1949), 5-6.
36. Jean-Lucien Bonillo, "La Reconstruction à Marseille. LaBataille du Vieux-Port, " in Maurice Culot and Daniel Drocourt, eds., Marseille. La Passion des contrastes (Liège, 1991), 343-53;
37. Jean-Lucien Bonillo, "Un Projet urbain ... malgré eux(les architectes N.D.R.), " Les Cahiers de la Recherche Architecturale 32/33(1993), 25-13.
38. Petout, "Saint-Malo, " 239 (see n. 3).
39. See Guy Pessiot, Histoire de Rouen, 1939-1958. La Guerre 39/45 et lareconstruction en 900 photographies (Rouen, 1983), 244;
40. Vincent Bradel, "Saint-Dié, sans Corbu, nimaître, " in Dieudonné, Villes reconstruites, 1: 297 (see n.2);
41. Jean-Yves Cozic, "Deuil d'une ville détruite, approchepsychologique, " in Dieudonné, Villes reconstruites, 2: 78-79;
42. Anne Bonduelle, ed., Dunkerque. Dunes, briques et béton (Lille, 1995), 237;
43. Nasr, "La Réalité de la perception, " 180 (see n.4);
44. Pierre Le Goïc, Brest en reconstruction. Antimémoiresd'une ville (Rennes, 2001), 144.
45. Buildings that might have been rehabilitated were often torn down afterthe war in cities throughout Europe, particularly given the lack of sufficientfunds for restoration and the relative ease of building entirely newconstructions. Nicola Lambourne, War Damage in Western Europe: The Destructionof Historic Monuments During the Second World War (Edinburgh, 2001), 171-79.
46. Rémi Baudouï, "Imaginaire culturel etrepré sentations des processus de reconstruction en Europe après1945, " in Rémi Baudouï, Dominique Barjot, and Danièle Voldman, eds., Les Reconstructions en Europe, 1945-1949 (Brussels, 1997), 312.
47. For a discussion of the épuration of former Vichy authorities in Marseille, see Lucien Gaillard, "Les Étrangers et l'épurationdans les Bouches-du-Rhône, " Revue d'Histoire de la Deuxième Guerre Mondiale 113 (Jan. 1979), 45-62.
48. Charles Tredé, the head of the municipal department of urbanplanning who had overseen the initial stages of clearing the site, claimed thatsuch an intervention would greatly facilitate the subsequent process ofbuilding. Charles Tredé, "La Reconstruction du quartier du Vieux-Port, " Marseille. Revue Municipale 2, no. 3 (July 1947), 24.
49. However, Jean-Lucien Bonillo has argued in retrospect that the result ofthis operation was precisely the opposite. Bonillo, "LaReconstruction, " 273.
50. Claire Étienne-Steiner, "Le Havre, villes neuves, plans deville, " in Dieudonné, Villes reconstruites, 1: 265. The techniqueused in Le Havre whereby building debris was used to create the foundation fornew constructions was frequently employed in French cities that were damagedduring World War I.
51. See Marie-Christine Lacroix and Dominique Roussel, "Reconstructionet archaéologie: Noyon et Soissons, " in Reconstructions en Picardieaprès 1918 (Paris, 2000), 223.
52. Patrick Dieudonné, "Brest: Un Centre pourmémoire, " in Dieudonné, Villes reconstruites, 2: 179.
53. Alexandre Drieu, "Vieux-Port, " Paris-Midi, 20 Feb. 1943.
54. Author of the authoritative four-volume Manuel d'arché ologiegalloromaine (Paris, 1931-60), Albert Grenier taught classical archaeology atthe Collège de France in Paris and founded the archaeological journal Gallia in 1943. For a brief discussion of Grenier's contributions to Frencharchaeology, see Alain Schnapp, "French Archaeology: Between National Identity and Cultural Identity, " in Margarita Diaz-Andreu and Timothy Champion, eds., Nationalism and Archaeology in Europe (Boulder and San Francisco, 1996), 60-63.
55. Schnapp, "French Archaeology, " 61-62, 64.
56. See Antoine Hermary, Antoinette Hesnard, and Henri Treziny, eds., Marseille grecque. La Cité phocéenne (600-49 av. J.-C.) (Paris, 1999), 17-18;
57. Musée de l'Arles Antique. Collections archéologiquesd'Arles (Arles, 1996), 13-14.
58. Founded by the writer Frédéric Mistral in 1896, the Musée de l'Arles Antique was dedicated to the revival of Provençalculture in face of the perceived threat of modern homogenization and ofcentralizing pressures under the Third Republic. The Vichy government hoped toappropriate such institutions to its own ends. Even as a nostalgic revival ofconservative regional culture was encouraged, regional identity wassimultaneously asserted and subsumed beneath a coherent vision of nationalidentity imagined to transcend such differences. See Herman Lebovics, True France: The Wars over Cultural Identity, 1900-1945 (Ithaca, 1992), 135-56.
59. Henri Rolland, "Fouilles à Marseille dans le quartier du Vieux-Port (premiers sondages), " Gallia. Fouilles et Monuments Archéologiques en France Métropolitaine 5 (1947), 155-60.
60. Jean Cristofol, "Un Pas en avant, " Marseille. Revue Municipale2, no. 3 (July 1947).
61. In their study of archaeology in Noyon and Soissons after World War I, Lacroix and Roussel insisted that the reconstruction following World War II wasmore destructive because radical changes in construction techniques had replacedshovels and axes with heavy machinery. Lacroix and Roussel, "Reconstruction et archaéologie, " 231.
62. Pessiot, Histoire de Rouen, 195 (see n. 25).
63. For a brief discussion of excavations at Reims Cathedral (1922-33), see Jean-Pierre Azéma et al., eds., Reconstructions et modernisation. LaFrance après les ruines (Paris, 1991), 280.
64. Paul-Marie Duval, "France, 1950, " American Journal of Archaeology 55 (Oct. 1951), 371;
65. Didier Bayard and Jean Luc Massy, Amiens Romain. Samarobriva Ambianorum (Amiens, 1983).
66. In contrast with the situation in France, archaeological excavations wereundertaken in the immediate post-war years in Great Britain, where archaeologyhad a longer institutional history and received better funding. See R. E. M.Wheeler, "The Rebuilding of London, " Antiquity, no. 71 (1944), 151-52;
67. J. O'Neil, "War and Archaeology in Britain, " Antiquaries Journal 28 (Jan.-Apr. 1948), 20-44
68. Sheppard Frere, "Canterbury Excavations, 1944-48, " Antiquity, no. 91 (1949), 153-60;
69. Edward Bacon, Digging for History: A Survey of Recent World Archaeological Discoveries, 1945-1959 (London, 1960), 5-16.
70. Méry's observation is frequently excerpted (and often looselyparaphrased) from the following passage: "When Marseille did not ridherself of an ornament, she was divested of it by someone else. Ancient citythat has nothing ancient, beautiful city that has nothing of beauty, she hasmade a two-thousand-year voyage through history, and she has arrived, like theship Argo, having conserved only her name." Joseph Méry, Marseilleet les marseillais (Paris, 1860), 24.
71. Myriame Morel-Deledalle, "Mais où est donc Marseille?, "in Antoine Hesnard et al., eds., Parcours de villes. Marseille, 10 ansd'archéologie, 2600 ans d'histoire (Aix-en-Provence, 1999), 7.
72. Also see Fernand Benoit, Le Château Borély. MuséeArchéologique de Marseille (Marseille, n.d.);
73. Trésors d'art du Musée Borély, 2nd ed.(Marseille, 1970). The former collections of the Musée Borély arenow included in the Musée d'Histoire de Marseille.
74. Rolland, "Fouilles à Marseille, " 155.
75. See Myriame Morel-Deledalle, "Aux origines de l'arché ologiemarseillaise, " Marseille. Revue Municipale 3, no. 160 (1991), 42-50;
76. Morel-Deledalle, "Mais où est donc Marseille?, " 7-10;
77. Daniel Drocourt, "Un Siècle d'archéologie urbaineà Marseille, " in Marc Bouiron and Henri Tréziny, eds., Marseille. Trames et paysages urbaines de Gyptis an Roi René(Aix-en-Provence, 2001), 13-20.
78. Myriame Morel-Deledalle, "Mythe, historique et politique. Les Célébrations du vingt-cinquième centenaire de la fondationde Marseille, " in Hermary, Hesnard, and Tréziny, eds., Maiseillegrecque, 9-11 (see n. 37).
79. Morel-Deledalle, "Mythe, historique et politique, " 11.
80. Daniel Drocourt, "L'Archéologie urbaine au temps de Michel Clerc, " in Hesnard, Parcours de villes, 11-12.
81. Michel Clerc and G. Arnaud d'Agnel, Découvertesarché ologiques à Marseille (Marseille, 1904), 111.
82. Drocourt, "L'Archéologie urbaine, " 12.
83. Fernand Benoît, "Les Fouilles de Marseille en 1946-47, "in Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres. Compte-Rendus des Séances (1947), 582-85;
84. Fernand Benoît, "Topographie antique de Marseille. LeThéâtre et le mur de Crinas, " Gallia. Fouilles et Monuments Archéologiques en France Métropolitaine 24 (1966), 1-22. While thedating of these remains was subsequently revised, its original appellation, "the Greek theater, " continued to be used even after Benoîtsuggested in 1966 that this structure had likely been constructed during the Roman period.
85. Lucien-François Gantés and G. Hadgi-Minaglou, "Le Sitedes docks romains à Marseille, " in Agnès Durand, Guy Bertucchi, François Gantés et al., eds., Musée des Docks Romains (Marseille, 1995), 17.
86. Initial reports of the discovery of the Roman docks may be found in Benoît, "Les Fouilles, " 582-85;
87. Fernand Benoît, "Les Docks romains du Vieux-Port de Marseille, " Revue de la Chambre de Commerce de Marseille 34, no. 563 (May1947), 25-26.
88. Benoît, "Les Docks romains, " 26.
89. André Leconte, "La Reconstruction des quartiers du Vieux-Port, " Marseille. Revue Municipale 3, no. 2 (Mar.-Apr. 1948), 13;
90. René Egger and Fernand Pouillon, "Le Couronnement dusite. La Tourette, " Marseille. Revue Municipale 3, no. 4 (1948), 64.
91. The Roman docks were likewise profoundly reshaped by their incorporationinto the new buildings in the Vieux-Port quarter. In this case, the perimeter ofthe new building did not accommodate all of the dolia it was heralded asprotecting. In fact, the construction of the building's foundations and wallsled to the destruction of a significant number of them. While Fernand Benoît initially claimed he had discovered around fifty ceramic vessels, thirty-three were ultimately displayed in the museum. See Fernand Benoît, Musée des Docks Romains et du Commerce Antique de Marseille (Marseille, 1965), 11-12;
92. Gantés and Hadgi-Minaglou, "Le Site des docksromains, " 17-18.
93. For the early history of the museum and its founding, see Benoît, Musée des Docks Romains;
94. Simone Bourlard-Collin and Christian Trezin, Musée des Docks Romains et du Commerce Antique de Marseille. Guide du visiteur (Marseille, 1978);
95. L. G. Gros, "Les Fouilles archéologiques du Vieux-Port, "Marseille d'Hier et d'Aujourd'hui, no. 5 (Dec. 1947), 15.
96. Christian Goudineau has further suggested that Benoît (and otherarchaeologists of his generation) understood the relationship between the Phocaean colonists and indigenous inhabitants as one of acculturation to Hellenic culture. Christian Goudineau, "Marseille et la Gaule. En guise deconclusion générale, " in Michel Bats et al., eds., Marseillegrecque et la Gaule (Lattes, 1992), 451.
97. Since 1946, André-Pierre Hardy was the codirector of thearchitectural studio that the local architect Gaston Castel had begun in Marseille twenty years earlier. See André-Pierre Hardy, "Atelier Castel-Hardy, " in Gaston Castel. Architecte marseillais (Aix-en-Provence, 1988), 147-50.
98. André-Pierre Hardy, "Marseille. Porte de l'architectureméditerranéenne, " Pouvoir se loger - comment?. 'Massalia', no. 10 (1957), 28-30;
99. André-Pierre Hardy, "Un Carrefour du monde, " La Vie des Communes 3, no. 3 (Mar. 1959);
100. André-Pierre Hardy, "Renaissance Marseille, "Marseille. Revue Municipale 61 (Oct.-Dec. 1961), 6-17.
101. Marcel Poëte was the director of the Bibliothèque des Travaux Historiques de la Ville de Paris and an instrumental member of the Institutd'Urbanisme. The Institut d'Urbanisme was founded in 1919 to teach urbanism inresponse to the new exigencies of the Cornudet law passed that year, whichrequired all cities with at least ten thousand inhabitants to draw up a newurban plan. See Rémi Baudouï, "L'Institut d'Urbanisme de Pariset le problème parisien (1919-1939), " Cahiers de l'Institutd'Histoire du Temps Présent 12 (Oct. 1989), 119-27.
102. For an introduction to Poëte's career and his theories of urbanism, see Donatella Calabi, "Marcel Poëte: Pioneer of 'L'urbanisme' and Defender of 'L'histoire des villes, '" Planning Perspectives 11 (1996), 413-36.
103. André-Pierre Hardy, "Le Grand Marseille de Gaston Castel, " Marseille. Revue Municipale 3, no. 152 (Nov. 1988), 9-11.
104. See Hardy, ", Marseille, " 28-30;
105. Morel-Deledalle, "Mythe, historique et politique, " 11 (see n.51).
106. For discussion of Defferre's active role in subsequent legislativeefforts in favor of decentralization, see Gilbert Rochu, Marseille. Les Années Defferre (Paris, 1983), 214-15.
107. Le Goïc, Brest en reconstruction, 37-52 (see n. 25).
108. Here, Le Goïc echoes the observations of Jean-Yves Cozic, who hadearlier highlighted the critical shift from grief and forgetting to nostalgiaand remembering during the course of the postwar reconstruction of Brest:"I postulate ... that it was necessary for the residents of Brest toundertake the true work of grieving, that it cannot yet be completely finishedand that it passed over into nostalgia." Cozic, "Deuil d'une villedétruite, " 80 (seen. 25).
109. Le Goïc, Brest en reconstruction, 33.
110. Georges Meyer-Heine, "La Région marseillaise et sonavenir, " unpublished ms., 26 Nov. 1946, 1242 W 31, ADBdR.
111. Fernand Benoît expressed a similar sentiment years later:"Born of the excavations in the Meux-Port, [the museum] rests on Greeksoil." Quoted in original French in B. L., "Inauguration du Musée des Docks Romains du Lacydon, " Marseille. Revue Municipale 3, no. 53 (July-Dec. 1963), 15.