MARSEILLE, France — In a building here, down by the old port, immigrants from the colonies, most of them North African, were showered, deloused and examined before entry into France. A sort of French Ellis Island, the structure had been abandoned for 40 years and was nearly demolished in 2009. Now, it is being rehabilitated as a museum, for an exhibition opening on March 1 called “Regards de Provence, Mediterranean Reflections” — part of Marseille’s celebration of itself as a European Capital of Culture for 2013.

Gaining the title, designated by the European Union annually since 1985, is something like winning the Olympics. It gives Marseille, France’s second-largest city, a chance to remake itself, reclaim its gorgeous port for ordinary citizens and to reshape its image — from a poor, rough, crime-ridden and corrupt crossroads whose economy declined with the end of colonialism to an attractive tourist destination of sun, sea, seafood and culture. That is the intent, certainly — to make Marseille not just a commercial center, but a destination.

With a budget estimated at nearly $135 million, raised from public and private funds, the organizers hope to attract an additional two million visitors and lift the economy. “It’s a shock, a cultural earthquake,” said Jacques Pfister, the head of the local chamber of commerce and director of the association that organized Marseille-Provence 2013, known as MP2013. “We’ve created a cultural offer unique in Europe,” he said. “We want to tie together France, Europe and the Mediterranean.”

More concretely, Mr. Pfister said, “we want the people of Marseille to be able to take back the sea coast and the old port,” which is already mostly car-free and is undergoing a multimillion-dollar face-lift.