Le Panier carries the weight of its history lightly. The three small hills of the quartier have been inhabited continually since Marseille was founded here by Greek settlers in 600BC. In time medieval churches were built on the foundations of Greek temples and buildings of four or five stories replaced earlier houses.
In the seventeenth century the bourgeoisie deserted the old town, moving to the grand new squares and boulevards on the south side of the port. The narrow, stepped streets of Le Panier were left to fisherman, seafarers and successive waves of new arrivals from Italy, from Corsica and later from the Comoros. It’s unlikely that many of these people would have completely rebuilt a house from the ground, more likely that repairs and alterations gradually adapted buildings surviving from earlier times. As in so many old urban areas the buildings of today are a practical patchwork of foundations, walls, doorways and windows reaching back across the centuries.
(Click on any door to view the gallery)
A post for Thursday Doors.
June 14, 2018 at 9:12 am
Those Thursday Doors are the gift that just keeps on giving!
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June 14, 2018 at 11:13 am
Oh yes, marvellous! That cubist job is excellent. And “strega” means “witch” in Italian. In French too?
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June 14, 2018 at 11:59 am
No, ‘strega’ isn’t a French word but apparently Le Pannier has long had an Italian community…
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June 14, 2018 at 2:02 pm
I was wondering about “strega”, too. When our girls were little, we had a book called “Strega Nonna.” I like the diamond-shaped openings in many of the doors and I like the face in the little “window” in the first shot and the similar one in the last row.
janet
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June 14, 2018 at 2:13 pm
Thanks for your comments. I hope your ‘granny witch’ was a benevolent one!
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June 14, 2018 at 4:28 pm
A strega is the name of a restaurant. This name comes from Corsica. They serve corsican dishes.
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June 14, 2018 at 4:51 pm
Thank you for this clarification – obviously nothing to do with Italian witches!
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June 14, 2018 at 8:05 pm
What a wonderful collection. I love how they’ve been “adapted” over time.
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June 14, 2018 at 9:16 pm
Thanks for your comment. I’m glad you enjoyed the collection.
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June 15, 2018 at 4:39 am
Great selection of doors. I love the one with the colorful laundry hanging out to dry.
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