Cours Mirabeau - History

History

From 1646 onwards, rich locals started moving into the Mazarin quarter, built by Michel Mazarin, brother of the Cardinal and Archbishop of Aix from 1645-8.

In 1650, the Provence Parliament commissioned the building of a thoroughfare for carts where there was a crumbled rempart. The idea was for it to become the new place of dalliance for Aix dwellers, instead of the place des Prêcheurs.

The thoroughfare cost 100,000 pounds, and was paid for by property buyers, the town (15,000 pounds), Provence communes (20,000 livres) and the Duke of Vendôme, Louis de Mercœur.

A long enclosure closed off by remparts, town houses were gradually built on each side. A balustrade would look to fields and gardens downwards.

By 1696 four fountains had been built : Fontaine des 9 canons, Fontaine "Moussue, Fontaine du Roi René and, to the west, "les Chevaux-Marins", now vanished.

Whilst he first thought of building a palace there, the Duke of Vendôme came around and decided on the 'wildness of fields'. Instead he commissioned the pavillon Vendôme, where he died in 1669. His son, Louis Joseph de Vendôme, sold their part of the Cours Mirabeau back to Pierre de Creissel, who sold it again to four buyers, thus dividing it into four town houses.

In 1876, Mac-Mahon signed a decree for it to be named after Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau.