One of Pierre Puget's largest works and most original chapel is the « Vieille Charité »
(Old Charity) in his native town of Marseilles.
This former almshouse, close to the Old Harbor, was built between 1670 and 1749 in pink and white stone. The interior courtyard includes buildings whose singularity rests in the three arcaded galleries overlooking a pure Italian baroque chapel crowned with an oval dome. The interior of the chapel is also quite original and surprising. The classical façade added in 1863 consists of a portico with an extremely elegant fronton supported by Corinthian columns and pilasters. The allegory of Charity welcoming indigent children is surrounded by pelicans feeding them and ornamental foliages.
Marseilles: Chapel of the « Vieille Charité ».
Copyright: photos-provence.fr
The unity in style, proportions and functional aspect are remarkable. The three levels open to vast spaces devoted to work and life where men and women were separated. The buildings did not suffer from the French Revolution and in the XIXth century vagrants and orphans were lodged here. The « Vieille Charité » was then converted into barracks and housed homeless during World War II. In 1940, Le Corbusier, famous for his « Cîté Radieuse » in Marseilles, denounced and pointed out the state of derilection of the edifice finally listed in 1951.
In the late 60s, the very active Minister of Culture André Malraux raised funds for this unique masterpiece that holds the visitors spell-bound.
The almshouse and chapel were restored from 1961 to 1986. It now houses the Museum of Mediterranean Archeology offering an important Egyptian collection, the Museum of Africa, Oceania and Amerindia, a library dedicated to archeological documents and other cultural structures.
Marseilles: the chapel of the « Vieille Charité » almshouse.
Marseilles: the « Vieille Charité » almshouse.
Image Source: Wikimedia Commons.
