Basilica · France · Restored

Notre-Dame de la Garde

Basilique Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde

Notre-Dame de la Garde is a Catholic basilica perched on a high limestone outcrop overlooking Marseille, France, and a long-standing local pilgrimage site and city landmark. The building comprises a rock-cut lower church (crypt) in a Romanesque manner and an upper Neo-Byzantine church richly faced with mosaics, capped by a tall square bell tower that supports a large gilded statue of the Madonna and Child.

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Photograph via Wikimedia Commons

First raised

1853

Its prime

1893

Today

Restored

As it stood in 1893

What Notre-Dame de la Garde looked like in its prime.

Perched on a 149 m limestone spur above the Old Port, the basilica rises in two tiers: a low, rock-carved Romanesque crypt under a larger Neo-Byzantine upper church clad in polychrome mosaics and patterned stone. A square 41 m bell tower surges from the roof, topped by a 12.5 m belfry and an 11.2 m gilded copper Madonna and Child that glints gold against the sky. Exterior stone is pale limestone; interiors are mosaic-covered, domed, and richly textured.

Step inside

7 places to explore in 1893.

The record describes 7 distinct spots at Notre-Dame de la Garde, including 2 interiors: lower church (crypt) carved from rock, upper church interior and mosaics. Create your own photoreal reconstruction and explore every one, more scenes means more photos, more angles and more of the immersive experience.

Approach from the Old PortMain façade and entranceUpper terrace / panoramic viewpointFort spur and ramparts (west side)Lower church (crypt) carved from rockUpper church interior and mosaicsBell tower and gilded Madonna and Child

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