Photo : Robert Valette / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Fort Saint-Jean (Marseille)
The origins of Fort Saint-Jean go back to the twelfth century. At the time of the Crusades, the site was granted to the Hospitallers of Jerusalem, who settled there and built their commandery to send troops to the Holy Land. They first occupied the old Chapel of Saint John the Baptist, then undertook the construction of a new church, a hospital and the Commander's Palace. The whole was completed in 1365. The fort kept a strictly military role until the French Revolution, before being turned into a state prison. During the Second World War, in 1942, the Germans set up ammunition depots in the inner fort to shelter them from possible air attacks. But in August 1944, the ammunition exploded, destroying a large part of the buildings.
