On the south side of the old harbour near the Fort St Nicolas stands the church of St Victor, built in the 13th century and once attached to an abbey founded early in the 4th century. With its lofty crenellated walls and square towers built of large blocks of uncemented stone, it resembles a fortress. St Victor is built above crypts dating mainly from the 11th century but also embodying architecture of the Carolingian period and of the early centuries of the Christian era. Tradition relates that St Lazarus inhabited the catacombs under St Victor; and the black image of the Virgin, still preserved there, is popularly attributed to St Luke. The spire, which is the only relic of the ancient church of Accoules, marks the centre of Old Marseilles. At its foot are a "calvary" and a curious underground chapel in rock work, both modern. Notre-Dame du Mont Carmel, also in the old town, occupies the place of what was the citadel of the Massaliots when they were besieged by Julius Caesar.
Of the civil buildings of the city, the prefecture, one of the finest in France, the Palais de Justice, in front of which is the statue of the advocate Antoine Berryer (1790-1868) and the Exchange, all date from the latter half of the 19th century. The Exchange, built at the expense of the Chamber of Commerce, includes the spacious hall of that institution with its fine mural paintings and gilding. The hôtel-de-ville (17th century) stands on the northern quay of the old harbour. All these buildings are surpassed by the Palais Longchamp (1862-1870), situated in the north-east of the town at the end of the Boulevard Longchamp. The centre of the building is occupied by a monumental _château d'eau_ (reservoir). Colonnades branch off from this, uniting it on the left to the picture gallery, with a fine collection of ancient and modern works, and on the right to the natural history museum, remarkable for its conchological department and collection of ammonites. In front are ornamental grounds; behind are extensive zoological gardens, with the astronomical observatory. The museum of antiquities is established in the Château Borély (1766-1778) in a fine park at the end of the Prado. It includes a Phoenician collection (containing the remains that support the hypothesis of the Phoenician origin of Marseilles), an Egyptian collection, numerous Greek, Latin, and Christian inscriptions in stone, &c. A special building within the city contains the school of art with a valuable library and a collection of medals and coins annexed to it. The city also has a colonial museum and a laboratory of marine zoology. The triumphal arch of Aix, originally dedicated to the victors of the Trocadéro, was in 1830 appropriated to the conquests of the empire.