[2] The château is at the end of a long avenue in the 120 hectares (300 acres) Campagne Pastré park, owned by the city of Marseille.

[3] Eugène Pastré and his wife Céline de Beaulincourt-Marles wanted to build a house suitable for the celebrations and social gatherings they gave.

Around 1860, they assigned construction of the building to the Parisian architect Jean-Charles Danjoy (1806–1862), who had undertaken a first plan at the request of the city of Marseille for the Palais Longchamp, which was not accepted.

In 1526 Claude Forbin, lord of Gardanne, started a faïence works with an Italian, Jean Angeli from Offida.

They established the pottery in one of the suburbs of Marseille, at Saint-Marcel, and engaged a Spaniard named Sanchez from Lérida to run the operation.

Two other potters, Antoine Franc from Manosque and Laurent Borelli from Grimaud, rented space in his factory and use of the oven on condition that they did not make competing products.

[7] After this first production of little importance, the resurgence of the art of pottery in Marseille is the work of an influential and wealthy personage, Joseph Fabre (1634–1717) former consul, financier, owner of a silk factory and banker of the Duke of Savoy.

In 1675, he brought Joseph Clérissy from Moustiers-Sainte-Marie (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence) and installed him in his property of Saint-Jean du Désert, launching the manufacture of faïence in Marseille.

By 1787, on the eve of the revolution, there were nine manufacturers of enameled faience: Agenl and Sauze, Antoine Bonnefoy, Boyer, Fauchier, Fesquet, Ferrin and Abellard, Joseph-Gaspard Robert.

A famous collection of faïence from Pierre and Lison Jourdan-Barry was given to the city in April 1995, and in 1998, an exceptional set of eighteenth century work of Moustiers was added.

She bequeathed a pottery near the Porte d'Aix to his daughter Madeleine Heraud (1685–1749), who was married to Louis Leroy, on condition that she used Joseph Fauchier to continue with the operation.

This production mainly by grand feu was characterized at the start by influences from Rouen, with symmetrical compositions using blue and red.

The factory used the petit feu technique of decorating, which let it obtain through successive firings a variety of colors rivaling those of porcelain.

[9] Around 1749, a new period of faience manufacture began in which the first factory was established by Honore Savy in which polychrome decoration succeeded the earlier style using blue with some violet.

[9] In July 1777, Savy was visited by Monsieur, the king's brother, later Louis XVIII of France, who gave permission for the factory to use his arms, and to display his statue in the gallery.

Decorative themes of this factory consist primarily of marine animals and landscapes painted in petit feu polychrome.

The museum also features faïence from Moustiers-Sainte-Marie (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence) which also manufactured a prestigious production that appeared slightly later around 1680, but which continued until 1982.

A revival of this production was made in 1927 by Marcel Provence, who opened on that date a manufacturing canter and created the Academy of Moustiers.

Among the many decorations used are hunting scenes, decorations "à la Bérain", mythological figures, medallions surrounded by a tied ribbon, arms, trophies with flags, Solanaceae flowers, garlands of flowers etc.. Faïence from other centers is also presented: La Tour d'Aigues, whose factory was created by Baron Bruny, Apt, Vaucluse, Castellet and Varages for provincial workshops but also Gien and modern productions.