Musée des Beaux-Arts de Marseille

The Musée des Beaux-Arts de Marseille occupies the north wing of the Palais Longchamp, one of the most theatrical buildings in the city. The palace is not a royal residence but a grand monument to water. For centuries, Marseille suffered from drought and poor water supply, and in the 1840s, an enormous canal was dug to bring water from the river Durance, over eighty kilometres away, to the city. When the canal reached Marseille, the city celebrated by building a monumental fountain and water tower, designed by the architect Henri-Jacques Espérandieu and built between 1862 and 1869. A colonnade in a sweeping curve frames a cascade of water, with sculptures of bulls and horses and a central group that represents the Durance, and the two wings of the palace, which flank the water, house the Museum of Fine Arts and the Natural History Museum.

The fine arts museum was founded in 1801, and it moved to the palace in 1869. It covers painting, sculpture and drawing from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century, with French, Italian and Flemish works, and it has a particular interest in the art of Provence. One of the best-known pieces is a large painting by Michel Serre showing the plague of 1720, which killed about half the population of Marseille. It shows corpses piled in the streets near the harbour, and it is one of the most striking pictures of an epidemic in French art. The sculptor Pierre Puget, who was born in Marseille in the seventeenth century and worked on the grandest projects of the age, is represented, and so are painters of the Provençal landscape school, such as Adolphe Monticelli, whose thick, colourful paint foreshadowed Impressionism, and Félix Ziem, who painted views of Venice and of Provence.

The galleries are set in large, high rooms with natural light, and the building itself, with its monumental staircase and decoration, is part of the attraction. The painted and sculpted decoration of the interior celebrates the arts and the city's prosperity, and the setting gives the collection a sense of occasion. A visit typically takes about an hour or two.

The Palais Longchamp stands in a hilly park on the edge of the city centre, with gardens and shady paths, and the climb up the great stair to the water tower gives a view over the city. The surrounding district, with its nineteenth-century apartment buildings, has cafés and markets. Elsewhere in Marseille, the MuCEM, the Musée Cantini, the Cathédrale La Major, Le Panier and La Vieille Charité add culture, while the Corniche Kennedy and the Calanques National Park provide the coast.

Check the museum's opening days, since many French museums close on Mondays, and whether you need to reserve a time slot. It suits art lovers and families. Allow time to enjoy the fountain.