Rue de la République

The Rue de la République is defined by its long, straight path and imposing rows of Haussmann-style buildings, which stand out from the dense, older streets of central Marseille. Conceived in eighteen sixty as a way to modernize the city, this thoroughfare was designed to connect the Old Port to the newly built commercial port at La Joliette. To carve this wide route through the existing terrain, workers leveled the hill of the Carmes and destroyed nine hundred and thirty-five houses, displacing sixteen thousand people in the process.