Cassis, Bouches-du-Rhône

The site where Cassis now sits was first occupied between 500 and 600 BC by the Ligures, who constructed a fortified habitation at the top of the Baou Redon. These people lived by fishing, hunting, and by agricultural methods.

The link with Massilia (Marseille), a city founded by the Phoceans, means that the current site of Cassis could have been inhabited by the ancient Greeks, though no proof has yet been found.

During the Roman times, Cassis was part of the maritime route made by the Emperor Antoninus Pius. At this time, the port advanced right up to the place Baragnon. It was already a small village, established mainly around the Arena and Corton beaches. The principal livelihood was fishing and maritime trade with North Africa and the Middle-East. Several archaeological discoveries attest to this.

From the 5th to the 10th century, invasions by the barbarians led the population to seek refuge in the castrum, a fortified city that, in 1223, became the property of the Seigneurie des Baux de Provence.

In the 15th century, Cassis was ceded to the Counts of Provence, then King René gave the town to the Bishops of Marseille, who exercised until the Revolution of 1789.

In the 18th century, Cassis started to develop outside the ramparts of the fortified city and around the port. After the Restoration, new industries started to develop here. This included the drying of cod, the clothes industry, the manufacture of olive oil, coral work, wine-making and the exploitation of the local stone (cement, limestone). Indeed, the Stone of Cassis, which was exploited here since antiquity made Cassis famous. The stone for the quays of the large Mediterranean ports are from Cassis, (Alexandria, Algiers, Piraeus, Marseille, Port Said) and the base of the Statue of Liberty in New York also came from here. Today, the stone is used for more domestic purposes: pile (the Provençal word for a sink), swimming pool etc.

In the 20th century, these industries started to disappear, but the workforce turned to wine making (Cassis was one of the first three vineyards to profit from the appellation d'origine contrôlée (label of controlled origin) introduced in 1936) and to tourism.