For­ti­fi­ca­tion by Louis XIV at the entrance to the Old Port. Accord­ing to leg­end, the Pho­cians, the founders and first inhab­i­tants of what was then Mas­salia (Mar­seille), land­ed on the site of the fort in the 6th cen­tu­ry BC. In the 12th cen­tu­ry, Fort Saint-Jean was the start­ing point for the Cru­sad­er Knights to Pales­tine, and in the 15th cen­tu­ry a light­house appeared here, and now its lantern is vis­i­ble from the sea for 20 kilo­me­ters.

Dur­ing the French Rev­o­lu­tion, the fort’s premis­es were used as a prison for Jacobins. And dur­ing World War II, the Ger­mans set up an ammu­ni­tion depot in them, which was blown up in 1944. In 1964, after the fort was trans­ferred to the Min­istry of Cul­ture, it was rec­og­nized as a his­tor­i­cal mon­u­ment of France.

Today, the ter­ri­to­ry of the citadel, sur­round­ed by high fortress walls, is a muse­um com­plex. Here you can see the medieval Chapel of St. John, the restored tow­er of King René, a light­house, the ruins of ancient bar­racks, a memo­r­i­al to those who died in the death camps, as well as the Muse­um of Euro­pean and Mediter­ranean Civ­i­liza­tions.