Our Lady of The Guard

Hello Charlie,
Last time in class, Mr Leveque told us that when Canadian students came to Marseille, they were amazed by the historic aspect of the city.  Thinking about that, my thoughts turned to the symbol of Marseille, the fishermen's protector: the Basilica Notre Dame de La Garde (this is why the title is Our Lady of The Guard, I tried to traduce the monument's name from the french, don't judge me okay!).

Because I am a very curious person (and because I had no other idea for the blog article...) I looked after informations about OLoTG and I found some surprising stuffs about this Basilica that everybody knows or believes to know.
So let me present you six facts about our beloved OLoTG :

1_ Even if the official date of it construction is 1853, it has been built gradually since 1214, this is why it style is so particular, it has been influenced by different epoques. Indeed we can observe some stones graved in latin, in greak, in french and some in provencal dialect.

2_ The tower is 64.7 meters high, and composed by a square bell-tower, an other small tower which serves as piedestal for the statue of The Virgin Mary holding her child Jesus covered with gold leaf.

3_ In collective superstition OLoTG, nicknamed Good Mother (Bonne Mère in french for the few who did not know) protects fishermen and sailors coming or leaving the port of Marseille. Indeed we can see really well OLoTG from the Vieux-Port as it overlooks it. It can explain the fact that fishermen think it watches over them.

4_ The Basilica is a place of incredible christian syncretism, it has a Romano-Byzantine style (Byzantines are Orthodox) and is now a Catholic place of worship!  

5_ A funicular to OLoTG was constructed in 1892, it rose directly from the Dragon street to the drawbridge. The 11 September 1967, the funicular was destroyed because it was not profitable.

6_ OLoTG has a twin, the Tower of Tour Sainte in the 14th arrondissement of Marseille. The latter has not had all the renovations and interest enjoyed by OLoTG, and it is now much less known to the general public. It is now a simply and very small church. It turns out that my former school Tour Sainte (what a coincidence!) is a catholic one named by the chuch.

I hope you enjoyed this short article about Our Lady of The Guard Basilica. I am sorry if there are some language mistake, even ME I am not perfect....( I know it is surprising, but c'est la vie as Mr Leah would say ). 
Thank you for reading and take care of yourselves.

Inès LOUCIF (aka ILRDM for those who understand)