The city started at the harbor and expanded Eastward, climbing steep limestone hills about 2500 feet high. We did somewhat the same but took a few buses and subways.
After lunch we saw two major Marseille works by the Provence architect Henri Esperandieu: a beautiful waterworks and a basilica.
We took the bus up the steep hills South of the old harbor to the 500 foot high site of the Basilique de Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde. The site is more one better suited to a fort than to a church for people like the French who seize on any excuse to stay home on Sundays. Like the major cathedral in town, this was built in the mid 19th century in the then fashionable Romano-Byzantine style with its alternating bands of light and dark stone. (Parisians got a similarly built church about the same time on a similar hill with a commanding view of the city. We call our Montmartan church the Basilica of Sacre Coeur).
Here's an outside view showing its fort-like appearance:
And, in fact, the route to the main door is protected by this drawbridge:
We asked Pietrina to protect the door as well and she did a pretty good job for a former fashion model:
Here's a view of the tower:
Inside the architecture is consistent with the outside with its alternating horizontal rows reminiscent of the cathedrals in Siena and Pisa:
Here's a view of the domes from the inside with the gold ceramic decorations:
Here's a picture of a reliquary carried by angels from the inside of this place:
From the basilica's commanding heights, the views are spectacular. Here's a shot of the new harbor rising beyond the town's cathedral in the middle right of the picture
Coming down from the steep hill, one sees Fort St. Nicholas still guarding the port.
Nearby is the Basilque St-Victor, a relic of the abbey dedicated to the patron saint of sailors. This is pretty much a fort from the outside, as it had to be in the 11th century when it was built. While we were there, it was taking a beating from young boys using it to return their soccer ball:
Here's the doorway to that old church much closer:
Inside the nave is 13th century primitive gothic:
Here's its ceiling:
The apse was built about a 100 years later but the main altar is, like the rest of us, from the 1960s and so not quite as good:
Nearby is this square which suggests that sailors don't spend all of their time praying to St. Victor:
Next we took the fine Marseille subway eastward to see the other Henri Esperandieu edifice called the Palais Longchamp. Here's a sneak preview:
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