About this place
The Esplanade de la Tourette is one of the great open balconies of Marseille, a windswept terrace on the rocky Saint-Laurent hill where the old city meets the sea. Just behind it stands the little pink stone Église Saint-Laurent, a gem of Provençal Romanesque that was the parish of the port's fishermen and sailors. The terrace looks out over a painful chapter of the city's past, for the old quarter clinging to the north bank of the Vieux-Port below was emptied and dynamited by the German occupiers in 1943. Today it offers an unobstructed panorama toward Fort Saint-Jean, the islands and the horizon.
Key facts
- 1943 year — German occupiers dynamited the old quarter on the port's north bank below
- 1249 year — Saint-Laurent was already counted among Marseille's great parishes
- 4 parishes — Saint-Laurent ranked among the four main medieval parishes of Marseille
📍 Tunnel de la Joliette, 13002, Marseille