Cathedral of Notre-Dame de la Garde (France) - description, history, location. Exact address and website. Tourist reviews, photos and videos.

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Without exaggeration, the Notre-Dame de la Garde Cathedral is the most visited attraction in French Marseille. The Catholic church stands on a high hill, so it can be seen from almost everywhere. The monastery was built in the mid-18th century on the site of a former chapel and has since remained one of the main pilgrimage sites in Marseille. There are especially many believers here on the day of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary, held every year on August 15. The top of the bell tower of the already majestic cathedral is decorated with an 11-meter gilded statue of the Virgin Mary and Child.

Notre-Dame de la Garde Cathedral is open to visitors all year round. However, in the summer (from April to September), due to the influx of tourists, it works longer hours - from 7:00 to 19:15. In winter (October to March), access to the temple is from 7:00 to 18:15.

You can get to the Notre-Dame de la Garde Cathedral by public transport (bus number 60 goes to the temple) or by car if, for example, you rented a car. There is a parking lot next to the cathedral, but please note that you will need to leave the parking lot at exactly 19:00 in winter and at 20:00 in summer. Bus travel costs 2 EUR per person.

Cathedral of Notre-Dame de la Garde

After your tour of Notre-Dame de la Garde Cathedral, you can grab a bite to eat at the on-site restaurant. It is open daily from 8:00 to 17:30. The excursions themselves - as well as the entrance to the temple - are free for all visitors. But to conduct them, you must first send an application (this can be done through the official website of the cathedral), indicating the date and desired topic of the excursion.

At the Notre-Dame de la Garde Cathedral there is a souvenir shop where you can buy figurines, rosaries, icons and other religious paraphernalia as souvenirs. The store is open every day from 9:00 to 18:30 (in winter until 17:30). And finally.

Residents of Marseille call the Basilica Notre-Dame de la Garde the guardian of the city. The basilica and the gilded statue of the Virgin Mary mounted on the bell tower are visible from anywhere in the city. In 1214, the Marseille priest Peter built a small chapel of the Virgin Mary. The chapel was erected on top of the 161-meter-high rocky hill La Garde (guard), which overlooked Marseille and the sea. In January 1516, Marseille was visited by the French king Francis I. In the chapel of the Virgin Mary, the monarch served a prayer service in honor of the victory of the French army in the Battle of Marignano. The king appreciated the location of the temple and the excellent view of the surrounding area from the top of the hill, which he took advantage of when building two forts in Marseille to protect the city: one fort was built on the island of If, the second on the top of the hill on which the chapel stood. Once outside the walls of the fort, the church did not cease activity; it was visited not only by soldiers of the garrison, but also by residents of Marseille. To enable the townspeople to get to the temple, by order of Francis I, a drawbridge was built, along which people walked to church services every morning. Not a single sailor went to sea without praying at the statue of the Virgin Mary. During the French Revolution, members of the Bourbon family were detained in the fort for six months. The Catholic religion was prohibited in France. Like many other churches in France, the Notre-Dame de la Garde church was nationalized, and the property was simply looted - two statues of the Virgin Mary, a bell, and an altar disappeared without a trace. Only a large crucifix survived, which can still be seen at the entrance to the temple. After the revolution, the chapel was opened again. The commandant of the fort presented a small bell, and the former Marine Escaramagne - a statue of the Madonna with a bouquet, which he had bought at auction. By the middle of the 19th century, Marseille had grown significantly; the chapel could not accommodate everyone. In 1851, the priests turned to the War Ministry with a request to demolish the small chapel and erect a basilica with a large bell tower on the territory of the fort. Permission was received in 1852. Construction of the temple in the Roman-Byzantine style began on September 11, 1853, according to the design of the architect Henri-Jacques Esperandieu. The exterior of the temple is made using white Kalisan limestone and green stone. A wide stone staircase leads to the terrace located in front of the basilica, and a small drawbridge leads into the church building itself. On June 4, 1864, the unfinished basilica was consecrated by Cardinal Willecourt. The construction of the bell tower was completed in 1866, and the statue of the Virgin Mary, made in Paris, in the Christophle workshop, was delivered to Marseille by train in 1869. The statue was made of copper, cast in four parts, and after joining them, the figure of the Virgin Mary and the Child was covered with gold leaf. In 1870, the 11-meter statue, weighing 9,796 kg, was installed in the bell tower of the Basilica of Notre-Dame de la Garde. The interior of the temple is decorated with luxurious mosaics and marble. When liberating Marseille from the Nazis, the command was tasked with driving the Germans out of the Basilica of Notre-Dame de la Garde without the use of aviation and artillery. The temple was liberated on August 25, 1944 thanks to the courage of French soldiers. After the war, the "Guardian of Marseille" again faithfully served the inhabitants of the city. In 2000-2008, large-scale restoration work was carried out on the exterior and interior of the basilica.

The Yamasukro Cathedral is noteworthy for many reasons. First of all, it is located on the African continent, in Cote d'Ivoire, which in itself is surprising, since there are only 20% Christians here. Such buildings are more typical of Europe, with its majestic Gothic style. Secondly, Notre Dame de la Paix is ​​one of the tallest churches in the world, and is the largest cathedral in the world.Another distinctive feature of it is that it was built very recently, judging by global standards - in 1989

Ivory Coast President Felix Boigny chose Yamaskuro as the site for the construction of the basilica and at the same time the new capital of the country in 1983. He wanted to perpetuate his name by building the largest church in the world. He placed his image in the form of a stained glass window next to the stained glass image of Christ and the apostles

The Basilica of Notre-Dame de la Paix was built between 1985 and 1989 at a cost of $300 million USD. The church was built on the model of St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome, eventually surpassing it in area. The first stone was laid on August 10, 1985, and on September 10, 1990 the cathedral was consecrated by Pope John Paul II

Like the temple in Rome, the basilica in Yamasukro is not formally a cathedral (although everyone calls it that). Next door is the Cathedral of St. Augustine, the main temple of the city, where the bishop of the diocese is located

The basilica has caused great international controversy, which is not surprising. The luxurious building, lavishly covered in Italian marble, was built in the center of an impoverished African city where the majority of the population lives below the poverty line. Due to the construction of the basilica, the national debt of Cote d'Ivoire doubled. Despite this, many residents of Yamasukro are proud of their monument. This is the area surrounding the cathedral:

Despite the fact that Notre-Dame de la Paix surpasses the Vatican Church both in area (30 thousand square meters) and in height (158 meters), the internal space can accommodate no more than 18,000 people, and the Cathedral of St. Petra can accommodate several times more

The basilica is faced with marble from Italy, and 7,000 square meters of modern stained glass from France are installed here. Nearby there are two identical buildings, one of which serves as a house for a priest, and the second as a private papal villa. It was preserved for papal visits, but he visited the cathedral only once

The only condition for his participation in the consecration of the temple, John Paul II put forward the construction of a hospital next to it. They gave him this promise, and the pontiff personally laid the first stone in a field not far from the church, which remains there to this day. Unfortunately, the construction of the hospital never began...

Notre-Dame de la Garde (Our Lady of the Defender), a Catholic basilica in Marseille, is the city's most recognizable symbol. This is a place of pilgrimage on the feast of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary, and simply the most visited place by tourists. Consecrated on June 5, 1864, the church was built on the foundations of an ancient fortress, at the highest point of the city above sea level. The building itself rises another 149 meters above the hill and is topped with a golden statue of the Virgin and Child, visible from the sea and from all points of the city.

How to get there

The cathedral is located in the southern part of the Old Port, in the historical part of Marseille. Bus number 60 runs to the cathedral; get off at the Our Lady of the Guard stop.

If you take the metro, you will have to walk about 20 minutes from Castellane station (blue and red lines).

There is a parking lot at the cathedral where you can leave your car for the whole day.

Interesting Facts

The basilica replaced the church of the same name, which was founded in 1214 and restored in the 15th century. It consists of a lower part, or crypt, in Romanesque style and carved out of rock, and an upper church in neo-Byzantine style, decorated with mosaics. The rectangular bell tower, 41 meters high, is topped by an 11-meter belfry; on the belfry stands an 11-meter statue of the Virgin and Child, made of gilded copper.

Large-scale reconstruction from 2001 to 2008 included work on cleaning the mosaics from soot, restoring the green sandstone and white limestone from which the walls of the building are made.

The church stands on a cliff 162 meters above sea level. Since ancient times, this rock was a guard post, from where a full view of the sea and the city opened. The Catholic church in honor of the Virgin and Child, founded here at the beginning of the 13th century, was named after its location - the Virgin Mary on Sentinel Hill. Since the 16th century, sailors who survived a shipwreck have thanked the Mother of God in this temple for their salvation.

In 1793 the church was closed and services were stopped. In 1794, the silver statue of the Virgin, made in 1661, was melted down. Services were resumed only in 1807.

In 1852, a competition was announced for the best design of a new church. It was won by 23-year-old architect Henri-Jacques Esperandier (the project was submitted on behalf of his venerable teacher), the only one among the other competitors who proposed the neo-Byzantine style. During the voting, the votes were divided equally, but the vicar's decisive vote was for the Byzantine style, against the Gothic.

The statue of the Virgin Mary was made according to drawings by Parisian sculptors Eugene-Louis Leknes, Charles Goumery and Aimé Millet. It was smelted from copper using the advanced electroplating method for that time and coated with gold leaf. Henri-Jacques Esperandier insisted that a spiral staircase run through the center of the statue.

Construction was completed only in 1897, after the death of the architect and bishop who began it. By that time, the cathedral had long been open to believers.

Tips for tourists

The Cathedral of Notre-Dame de la Garde is an active Catholic church; please do not wear beachwear when visiting the church.

Visit the museum on the territory of the temple complex, here you can get acquainted with the interesting history of the construction of the cathedral.

The city was disappearing before our eyes. Explosions erased temples and palaces, bridges and mansions from its face... The city was destined for the fate of Warsaw and Dresden. The Second World War was not going to spare Marseille, the stronghold of partisan resistance on the Mediterranean coast of France. French troops, with the support of the allies, had already landed in Normandy and were steadily, inch by inch, step by step, taking their rights on their soil.

The retreating fascists mined neighborhoods in those parts of the old city where there was no military equipment - it was ordered to be withdrawn methodically and in an organized manner for future battles in East Prussia. This meant that in Old Marseille there would still remain a port with a two-thousand-six-hundred-year history, with a pier built almost five hundred years ago, the forts of St. John and St. Nicholas, the street Le Canebière with its Bourse decorated with reliefs will remain, the Château d'If, the Abbey of St. Victor, the Cathedral of Nouvelle Major and the Church of Reforme will remain...

But She had to disappear.
She is Notre Dame de la Garde, Mother Protectress, Guardian Virgin of Marseille, Lady Protector of those at sea.

Its base is elevated above the city by one hundred and fifty-four meters, the main spire is stretched to the sky almost a hundred meters, and the golden crown of the Blessed Virgin shines in the rays of the sun another ten meters higher.
It is simply impossible not to notice it, it towers so high above the modern city. Walking uphill to the temple will take at least half an hour along narrow streets, then you still have to overcome the steep stairs to the top of the hill. But all of Marseille - old and new - will appear from there at a glance.

The temple has the appearance of a Roman-Byzantine basilica, although it was built in the 19th century, when the majestic cathedral replaced the chapel of La Bonne Mere, which for several centuries received pilgrims and saw off sailors on long voyages with blessings. The name of the builder of the ancient chapel was preserved only as “Master Pierre”; in 1852-1863, a new majestic temple was erected with the money of Marseille donors by the architect Esperandieu at the highest point of the city: this is how those who especially need protection build.

A weak breeze touches the models of ships hanging in long garlands from under the arches of the temple. Every Marseille fisherman, captain and shipowner brings here an image of his ship. This is not prohibited for those who have at least once dropped anchor in Marseille harbor. Every sailor can count on the protection of the Most Pure One.
The townspeople resort to her intercession in ordinary everyday affairs - and in gratitude they bring figurines of saints carved from wood to her monastery. Thanks to these figurines and colorful boats, the temple looks a little like an old toy shop...

The cathedral reaching towards the sky lives on. He lives above the small squares of stone houses, above the fish market at the pier, above the narrow streets of the Corsican quarter, above modern highways, above the white cliffs and hot sand of the coasts, above the low trees, above the departing liners, above the cranes and whistles of the port... under the sun, from which Visitors feel dizzy even on days that are called cloudy here.

The cathedral was supposed to disappear from the face of the earth no later than August 22, 1944 - the day before the French 7th Army and allied forces liberated Marseille from the occupiers. But the mine didn't work. Sappers removed it from the lower temple intact and blew it up on the coast outside the city. The wire connection was either loose or incorrect. How could this happen? Was the miner in a hurry and a coward? An underground fighter infiltrated the ranks of demolitionists? Did the heart of the German officer tremble, thinking at that hour about the spiers of his city on the Rhine or Elbe?
Be that as it may, perhaps the sappers of the 7th Army, who were closest to the miracle, most accurately named the reason why the explosion never happened. The inscription on the marble plaque they donated to the temple after returning with victory reads: “Thank you to Her, who did everything Herself.”