Fort Saint Nicolas is on the left when facing the Old Port of Marseille. Fort Saint Nicolas is a military building used not so much to protect the city from invasions, but above all to protect itself from the people of Marseille and their independent and rebellious spirit. It faces Fort Saint Jean, located on the other side of the Old Port. He is a witness of Marseille's history.
Thus, in 1660, following a series of political unrest followed by revolts, Louis XIV ordered the deployment of troops and the construction of a citadel 'at the place in the city that would be considered the cleanest', i. e. to allow the surveillance of the city but also its defence against an attack coming from the sea.
The current location was therefore chosen, behind the Saint-Victor Abbey. On March 2, 1660, the construction site was launched during the King's visit. Given the size of the project and the nature of the building, the construction was completed in record time, in only 4 years.During the French Revolution, the crowd, suspicious of the threat, both physical and symbolic, that Fort Saint Nicolas could represent, began to destroy it. But the Assemblée Nationale, anxious to preserve a structure for the defence of the city, ordered to stop the demolition of the fortress and began its restoration. In 1860, Fort Saint Nicolas was cut in half by the route of the new Boulevard Charles Livon.
Today, the fortress is still in two parts, the portion bordering the sea has been named Fort Ganteaume and houses the military circle and the officers' mess. The part on the land side, the high fort, is called Fort d'Entrecasteaux. Only part of the complex is open to the public and can be visited. The opportunity to climb up the ramparts of this Monument de Marseille and admire the superb view they offer of the port and the city of Marseille. The complex has been classified as a Historic Monument since 1969.
Saint-Georges de Boscherville Abbey is a former Benedictine abbey. It was founded in about 1113 by Guillaume de Tancarville on the site of an earlier establishment of secular canons and settled by monks from the Abbey of Saint-Evroul. The abbey church made of Caumont stone was erected from 1113 to 1140. The Norman builders aimed to have very well-lit naves and they did this by means of tall, large windows, initially made possible by a wooden ceiling, which prevented uplift, although this was replaced by a Gothic vault in the 13th century. The chapter room was built after the abbey church and dates from the last quarter of the 12th century.
The arrival of the Maurist monks in 1659, after the disasters of the Wars of Religion, helped to get the abbey back on a firmer spiritual, architectural and economic footing. They erected a large monastic building one wing of which fitted tightly around the chapter house (which was otherwise left as it was).