ABSTRACT
At the new harbour, connecting the city of Marseille with the Mediterranean Sea, MuCEM – Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisations – inhabits a spectacular site: the Fort Saint-Jean dominating the old harbour and the new J4 building. It aims to promote the understanding that Mediterranean cultural heritage is the shared source of many civilisations, and to be a place of dialogue about the challenges of the past and the present, to help lay the foundations of the Mediterranean world of tomorrow. MuCEM’s concept shows how a museum can, beyond its scientific, historical and cultural functions, extend its scope to the citizen, to urban and social regeneration, when choosing civilisational diversity as the protagonist of its narratives and programmes.
