Mazargues

Street sign
Rue Émile-Zola, with the Eglise Saint Roch in the background

Mazargues is a former village and now a neighbourhood of the 9th arrondissement in Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône, France.

History

Françoise-Marguerite de Sévigné (1646–1705), a French aristocrat, had a bastide in Mazargues. On February 5, 1703, in a letter to Mrs de Coulanges, he described it in those terms: "You only see people who live until a hundred years old; there are no illnesses; the good air and good water make it the realm of health and beauty. In this area, you only see pretty faces, only good-looking men, and old people just, like young people, have the most beautiful teeth in the world. If ever there are people who come close to those of Telemachus, it is those of Mazargues."

According to historian Alfred Saurel (1827-1887), the Château de Mazargues, located on the corner of Chemin du Lancier and Chemin de Mazargues, was burned down during the French Revolution of 1789.

Main sights

The obelisk was originally built on the Place Castellane in 1811 in honor of Napoleon II (1811-1832). It was moved to the roundabout in Mazargues in 1911.

It is home to the Église Saint Roch, a Roman Catholic church named for Saint Roch.[1][2]

It is also home to the Mazargues War Cemetery, whicch includes 1,487 burials of casualties from World War I and 267 burials of casualties from the Second World War.[3]

The main street, Rue Émile-Zola, is named in honor of writer Émile Zola (1840-1902). Another street, Rue Henri Revoil, is named for architect Henri Révoil (1822-1900), son of painter Pierre Révoil (1776-1842). Rue Raymond Cayol is named for Raymond Cayol (1917-1997), who served as a member of the French National Assembly for the Bouches-du-Rhône from 1946 to 1951. As for the Avenue du Maréchal de Lattre de Tassigny, where the obelisk meets, it is named for Marshall Jean de Lattre de Tassigny (1889-1952), who served in World War II and the First Indochina War. Moreover, Rue Henri Tomasi is named in honor of Henri Tomasi (1901–1971), a French classical composer and conductor born in Marseille.

Notable residents

Jean-Claude Gaudin, who has served as the Mayor of Marseille since 1995, was born and grew up in Mazargues.[4]

Bibliography

References

See also

External links

Media related to Mazargues at Wikimedia Commons

Coordinates: 43°15′04″N 5°24′14″E / 43.251°N 5.404°E / 43.251; 5.404

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Tuesday, August 19, 2014. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.