Carry from Aix

The carries from Aix called also the carries Royale is a place of the 3rd district of Marseilles. In the middle of this door limiting the historical center of Marseilles, a triumphal arch.

History

In 1784, the resale of the grounds of the Arsenal of the galères having produced a benefit of 200.000 books to the profit of the city, the aldermen had decided to use this benefit with the erection of a triumphal arch in the honor of Louis XIV and in memory of the peace which put an end to the Guerre of independence of the United States of America.

The site of the place of Aix was selected. But the hesitations due to the parsimony of the Marseilles municipal officials, made delay the project; it sank in the French revolution.

It was taken again in 1823, on the initiative of the Marquis de Montgrand, mayor of Marseilles, to commemorate, this time, the countryside of Louis de France, duke of Angouleme in Spain. It is in its plans for Marseilles, that Pierre Puget had drawn at the entry of the street of Aix a triumphal arch appearing the door of the city.

The language of the official documents is not to omit:

“The municipal council, known as the Statistics of the Rhone delta penetrated of admiration and recognition, voted spontaneously, after the glorious countryside of 1823, a triumphal arch to the prince généralissime and his army… The first stone was posed by it on November 4th, 1825, day of Saint-Charles, by Mr. the marquis de Montgrand, honorary gentleman of the room of the king, mayor of Marseilles. ”

Mr. Penchaud, architect of this monument, seems to have taken for model the Arc of Titus of the Via Sacra Rome. The adjudication of spoil was given to an Italian mason named Gaëtan Cantini, father of Jules Cantini, monumental mason, who had, later, to leave at the city a charming museum in the street Grignan and a column, less successful, on the Place Castellane.

The place of Aix was arranged; the aqueduct which crossed on its high arcades of 4m50, was demolished and one charged the Pinchaud architect with the construction of the triumphal arch; The first stone was posed by it by the marquis de Montgrand; This one read out inscription of the marble plate sealed in the foundations:

This triumphal arch
was voted on October 17th, 1823 by the town of Marseilles
to pay a homage bright
With the glory acquired in Spain
By the French Army and its famous chief,
S.A.R. Monseigneur the duke of Angouleme
Since dolphin of France.
Its majesty Louis XVIII, of glorious memory
Allowed, by royal decree of December 30th, 1823,
the erection of this monument of love and recognition
Towards its majestic family

However the construction of this triumphal arch still undergoes the vicissitudes of the history. Begun under Charles X, it was finished only under Louis-Philippe Ier. Following the many regime changes, the arc could not be question any more of celebrating the countryside of the duke of Angouleme in the two low-reliefs placed under the arcade; David of Angers chooses then like reason " the fatherland calling his/her children with the defense of the liberté" , and Ramey " the return of the brave men after the victoire" .

The triumphal arch was inaugurated on May 1st, 1837, feastday of the king Louis-Philippe Ier. There were solemn mass with the cathedral, fireworks, illuminations. The total of the expenditure engaged for construction, in 1825 and 1839, rose with 700.000 francs.

Structure

The sculpture of ornament was entrusted to the Parisian sculptor Marneuf who, very fortunately, took as a starting point the decoration of the ancient triumphal arch of Orange. For the historical sculptors (statues and low-reliefs), the town of Marseilles was addressed to David of Angers and Ramey. Following many regime changes, many modifications were known on the Triumphal arch, decoration felt passage of the white flag to the Tricolor. And thereafter, the modes which followed one another, successively, changed the dedication of the pediment.

On the faces and the sides, they were the battles of Fleurus, Héliopolis and Austerlitz. Eight statues of 2m75 top, placed on the attic and envisaged in the projects of 1825, represented the virtues essential to all the modes: In north devotion, resignation, the value, prudence; in the south, the force, temperance, vigilances, leniency. Unfortunately, the stone being friable, the statues disaggregates; In 1921, they were repaired out of reinforced concrete; In spite of that, six heads were detached in 1937 and fell on the public highway. Composed of only one arch and an attic supported by four Corinthian columns, it has a harmony which takes as a starting point the arcs of antiquity. But it would have gained, undoubtedly, to be placed in the middle of the city, on a beautiful way, its height and its width is the same ones: 17m68. The arcade measures 6m13 opening and 10m40 top.

The triumphal arch of the place of Aix is a monument which one has habit to neglect in the records of Marseilles. That is regrettable because it is better that its reputation.

Subway station: Jules Guesde and Colbert Hotel of the department

Marseilles expression

to have the bottom as the Door of Aix : to have an amazing chance, a chance of cuckold.

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