Vue des chantiers prise du milieu de la Rue Monbrion

In Marseille, as in Paris, major urban redesign was visited upon the city’s older neighborhoods during the Second Empire (1852–70). The construction of the broad Rue Impériale (now Rue de la République) connecting the old and new ports and the expansive Place Centrale midway along the boulevard required the demolition of 935 homes, the total or partial disappearance of 61 streets, and massive earthworks to level the hills along the route. Adolphe Terris was commissioned by the city to document both what would be destroyed and what would be built, along with the process of that transformation.