A bad blow for the Corderie. The ancient quarry unearthed by an Inrap team in 2017 in the Saint-Victor district, in Marseille, and exploited in the city's Greek era, will be well re-buried
"as quickly as possible"
, declared the Ministry of Culture in a letter sent in November to the Sites et Monuments association. Retained in order to be able to "
ensure the safeguard"
of a site as
"exceptional"
as it is
"extremely fragile"
, the solution will see the classified space on Boulevard de la Corderie return to the initial state of the real estate project carried by the promoter Vinci, whose work had been at the origin of the preventive excavation and the discovery of the ancient quarry.
Read alsoThe Greek quarry in Marseille could be "reburied" to ensure its conservation
Asked in September by the Association Sites et Monuments, the Ministry of Culture thus affirmed in a letter dated November 16, which
Le Figaro
was able to consult, that
"the configuration of the site does not easily lend itself to a protective construction. , nor to a visitation ”
.
Consequently, and taking into account the
"poor conservation capacity of the stone"
, the chief architect of historical monuments recommended in a study
"the reburial of these remains, after carrying out the work necessary for their long-term conservation. term ”
.
Work for which the precise timetable has not yet been specified.
"A joke"
"It's really a joke, we pay for words
, got carried away this Monday Julien Lacaze, the president of the Sites and Monuments association, in reaction to the response provided by the Ministry of Culture.
The classified site will deteriorate underground and no one will know anything about it, since
unlike the Cosquer cave
(closed to the public but reconstituted near the Mucem,
editor's note
),
the remains will not only be inaccessible to the public, but also to specialists and to specialists. state services. The ministry is not going to have fun clearing the ground to check the condition of the site from time to time!
". The last resort is therefore assumed.
"This proposal is obviously not an ideal solution"
, recognizes the letter from the ministry, which nevertheless maintains its preference for the option of the complete burial of the site, already put forward in September by the prefecture of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region.
A decision deemed incomprehensible by the residents' associations who see the plot of 635 m2, classified in 2018 as Historical Monuments, collapsing under a tarpaulin and bad weather.
This is the only surviving perimeter of the 6,500 m2 quarry excavated by Inrap archaeologists, and most of which was destroyed in December 2017 thanks to the ongoing construction work.
A meager sector that the former Minister of Culture, Françoise Nyssen, had also committed to
"enhance"
, in 2018, at the time of the site's classification.
View, in 2017, of sarcophagi carved in the limestone of the Greek quarry.
The surrounding stone has retained many traces of old tools.
Denis Gliksman / Inrap
The upcoming burying of the quarry, pushed into the emergency because of the great vulnerability of the site, buries in the same movement the two other working hypotheses on the future of this space.
The district of Saint-Victor will therefore not accommodate either an enhancement of the remains partially buried by glazed windows, nor a covered hall above the site.
To the chagrin of the people of Marseilles, who already dreamed of seeing a majestic blanket grow near the Old Port, like the one made by Mario Bellini and Rudy Ricciotti for the Visconti courtyard in the Louvre.
Incomprehension
Why bury the site rather than enhance it?
Because of
"the importance of investments"
to be committed for these projects, coyly invokes the letter of the office of the Minister of Culture, based on the study carried out by the architect of historical monuments.
A reluctance already noted last September by Sophie Camard (LFI), mayor of the 1st and 7th arrondissements of Marseille, the elected representative then reported to AFP that the partial enhancement of the site had been
"presented to her as something that was going to be very complicated, expensive ”,
by the Regional Directorate of Cultural Affairs (Drac).
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"Why did you save this space so that we could be told afterwards that (...) by default it would be buried again?"
, was surprised Sophie Camard two months ago. For Julien Lacaze, the affair illustrates neither more nor less than a surrender of the State to the interests of the real estate sector:
“Not only the classified area of 635 m2 already corresponded to the unbuilt rights-of-way of the project, but its future burial. will complete the promoter's initial plan. The public power bends in front of a private interest. "
The Phocaean Greeks at the origin of the founding of the city of Marseille around 600 BC. AD, were also inclined to face the fragility of the limestone of the Corderie. The site, which also preserved a section of the rampart of Marseille of Louis XIV, erected at the end of the 17th century, provided ancient Massilia with blocks intended for the architectural ambitions of its monuments, but also the raw material for many sarcophagi. Many Greek remains auscultated by archaeologists in 2017 have preserved traces of the tools that worked them, mainly in the 6th-5th century, then more occasionally during the rest of Antiquity. Soon back under Marseilles soil, the surviving cutting faces will thus keep for future generations the spectacle engraved in the stone of theMarseille history.