Located right at the mouth of the Old Port inlet is the MuCEM, or Musée des civilisations de l’Europe et de la Méditerranée, entirely dedicated to the civilizations of the Mediterranean basin. Awaiting you are 45,000 square meters of in-depth insights into the history, culture, archaeology, art and anthropology of the thousand souls that have made up the Mediterranean for centuries: the permanent collection of the MuCEM boasts no less than 200,ooo original artifacts, 135,000 prints, 355,000 photographs and 150,000 books. This is an incredible project when you think that it is not just a museum: in addition to the classic exhibition rooms contained in the J4 building also called the perfect cube (72 meters by 72), you will find a library, an immense children’s space, an auditorium, a restaurant with a panoramic terrace, and a suspended walkway that makes it easy to walk to Place d’Armes, where Fort Saint-Jean is located. The environment is made captivating thanks to the futuristic glass and steel structure, clad with an ultra-performance concrete fiber designed by architect Rudy Ricciotti: the atmosphere becomes even more atmospheric in the evening, when lighting effects created by conceptual artist Yann Kersalé are turned on.
