"Guard Hill (154 m) has always been an observation post. With a summit culminating at 154 meters, it allows you to take in a 360-degree view of the city, the islands and the sea. In the 15th century, an ordinance of Charles II of Anjou entered it in the list of relays. . This lookout system will improve over the centuries and the function continued on the hill until 1978.
To protect Marseilles from the armies of Charles V by the Constable of Bourbon, François Ier had a fort built in 1524, which, with the Castle of If, constituted a maritime defense of which the city was deprived. Nowadays, we can still see the presence of the fort serving as a base for the current basilica and guess above the north porch the King's emblem: the Salamander.
In 1214, a priest named Pierre had a small chapel and a sanctuary dedicated to the Virgin Mary built on this site, establishing the religious vocation of the place. Several chapels succeeded one another in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, until the construction of the current basilica. Thus the hill of the Guard has a triple vocation: a lookout post, a military structure, a place of worship and pilgrimage.
In the middle of the 19th century, the shrine turned out to be too small for the many pilgrims who visited it. Monsignor de Mazenod then decided to build a large Notre-Dame de la Garde basilica there. The first stone was laid on September 11, 1853, the work was entrusted to the architect Henry Espérandieu and the consecration took place on June 5, 1864.
It was during this period that the city transformed and launched the construction of prestigious buildings such as the Palais de la Bourse and the prefecture.
The familiar silhouette of the basilica is visible to Marseillais from many places in the city, from the Old Port to the Frioul Islands, the Mucem museum and the Fort Saint-Jean tower to the Pagnol hills.
Roman-Byzantine style (domes, polychromy of stones, gold, mosaics) the basilica perfectly meets the program of large constructions undertaken in Marseille under Napoleon III. The building consists of two parts:
- a low church, crypt, vaulted
- a high church, the sanctuary, consecrated to the Virgin (feast and pilgrimage on August 15).
The presence inside the building of numerous ex-votos displayed on the walls testifies to the popular faith, which goes far beyond the limits of the Phocaean city. We come from all the Bouches-du-Rhône, and all of Provence, to light a candle and ask for a favor, or simply to recharge our batteries by getting a little closer to the sky."