Bastide Marin

Home to long-distance sailors, La Bastide Marin was at the heart of a large agricultural area where vineyards and olive groves provided significant harvests.
Here you will discover architectural heritage dating back more than four centuries: a manor house and a farm. The natural setting, restored by members of the La Ciotat Il Était Une Fois association, is an eco-friendly site that houses an educational farm. It is also an LPO refuge consisting of several landscaped, secret and harmonious gardens.

La Bastide Marin has been listed as a Historic Monument since 4 March 2013.
Glorious long-distance sailors lived here for centuries. They braved storms, epidemics and pirates. Members of the Order of Malta, their bastide was hospitable.
A summer resort, a place of care and refuge during maritime attacks, La Bastide Marin holds many secrets.

A remarkable heritage site, it is the only remnant of the glorious days of maritime trade. The only surviving bastide in La Ciotat, Bastide Marin has a rich and fascinating history. Built around 1550, its owners were long-distance sailors and shipowners.

Owned by the Marin family, bourgeoisie of the maritime city in the 17th century, the bastide would belong over the centuries to the Abeille, Portalis and Fabre families, before returning to the Marin family in the 19th century. Its owners lived off the riches of maritime trade and managed the city (several consuls over the centuries, coats of arms and a large heritage in La Ciotat and Marseille).
Despite their desire to preserve the property, the heirs were forced to sell it to the municipality of La Ciotat on 9 July 1992 to settle inheritance costs. The Bastide and its lands then fell into disrepair, forgotten, squatted in and vandalised until 2004.

Rescue of the Bastide Marin and restoration of the heritage
Since 2004, the La Ciotat, Il Était Une Fois association has been working on a project to restore the Bastide Marin and its natural setting.
With its 600 volunteers and extensive partnerships, its aim is to highlight periods of history by encouraging the active participation of all citizens. It contributes to the promotion and transmission of knowledge and skills by preserving and restoring natural and built heritage.

A centre for interpreting Mediterranean matriarchal heritage.
The concept of Mediterranean matriarchal heritage symbolises the union between Mother Earth and the Mediterranean Sea, Mare Nostrum. It also recalls the commitment of women throughout the centuries.
Indeed, La Bastide Marin is a place where land and sea come together to form a single heritage. Home to long-distance sailors, it was also at the centre of a large agricultural area (10 hectares) where vineyards and olive trees provided significant harvests.
Here and around the Mediterranean, the land and the sea are at the heart of ancestral traditions, knowledge and popular wisdom; they are matrimoine.
This centre for interpreting Mediterranean matrimoine will aim to preserve and pass on ancient techniques and ancestral know-how to visitors and younger generations through spaces created and designed for educational purposes.

Remarkable architecture
Preserved by two hackberry trees, one of which is over three hundred years old, the façade of the residence is austere, faithful to the humility imposed by the hospitable order, but it has three rows of corbels, the first of which is inverted. Built with lime, a finely chiselled cobblestone pavement welcomes visitors.

This presentation, which is by no means exhaustive, illustrates the rich architectural heritage of Bastide Marin.
It holds many mysteries, and the association is still far from having uncovered all its secrets.

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