Old Charity Center
Pink and yellow stone almshouse, saved from demolition and rebuilt around a baroque dome over twenty-five years.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to the Old Charity Center in Marseille traces how this stone almshouse, packed with families left homeless after the German destruction of the old port district in 1943, nearly ended up under demolition papers by the 1940s and 50s. You'll hear how the architect Le Corbusier, better known for clearing away the past than saving it, raised the alarm that led to its 1951 listing as a historic monument. It follows the slow process that finally moved the last residents out in 1961 and the decades of restoration that followed.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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