Notre-Dame de la Garde (Marseille, France)1214

 

In 1214 - year of the battle of Bouvines and of the birth of Saint Louis – a priest of Marseilles whose first name was Pierre erected a small sanctuary dedicated to the Virgin Mary upon the rocky triangle forming the top of a 161 metre-high hill facing the town of Marseille, which was very small at the time.

 

As the hill was called "La Garde", the sanctuary quite naturally took the name "Our Lady of La Garde" So at its origin the chapel had neither apparition nor miracle; it was simply born of a priest’s devotion.

 

In January 1516, after his famous victory of 1515 at Marignan in northern Italy, the young king Henry 1st called for the first time at Marseilles where he was joined by his wife and mother.

 

 

The opportunity to do so was very quickly provided as Charles 5th, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, was intending to take possession of the south of France in order to reunite the two parts of his Empire (Central Europe and Spain) He besieged Marseille in 1524 without managing to take the town. But Francis 1st then came to Provence and decided to build two fortresses in Marseilles: one on the island of If ( the famous Château d’If) and the other on top of the Garde Hill where the chapel was. So the latter is now enclosed within the fortress.

 

 

During the French Revolution, after the execution of Louis 16th on the 21st January 1793, members of the Bourbon family were incarcerated for six months in the fortress of Notre Dame de la Garde.

 

The Catholic cult was forbidden in France in November of the same year. The State seized all religious edifices. Everything the chapel contained then disappeared : the two statues of the virgin (one in wood dating from the 13th Century and the other in silver from 1651) … the bells, the altars the ex-voto..

 

 

After the Revolution, church services started again in Notre-Dame de la Garde in 1807.

 

Joseph-Elie Escaramagne, an ex-sailor, gave to the sanctuary a statue of the Virgin bought at an auction sale: it is the statue of the « Vierge au bouquet » (Virgin with the bunch of flowers) which one can see behind the altar in the Crypt. For his part, the Fort Commander offered a small bell to the chapel.

 

Since the 13th century, the population of Marseilles had greatly increased. The Chapel was clearly too small and those responsible for he sanctuary wanted to make it a bit bigger. But, since the time of Francis 1st, all the top of the hill was military property and these responsible officials of the Chapel were only its hirers. The owner was the French State and the Minister of War controlled the estate. So they wrote to him to ask if he would agree to rent them two small rooms that adjoined the sanctuary and which, until then, were used by the garrison. The Minister granted their request. The common wall was knocked down and the Chapel was extended.

 

In 1837, the directors of the sanctuary installed in the Chapel, in place of the Virgin with the Bouquet, a statue of the Virgin in silver which they had commissioned from the artist Chanuel to replace the one which had been sent to be melted down during the revolution. This is the one which now dominates the great altar of the basilica.

 

A few years later, the little bell that the fort commander had offered in 1807 was considered by the church officials to be really too small. But, going from one extreme to the other, in 1842 they commissioned, from a foundry in Lyons, for this tiny chapel (at that time there was no question of building the bigger sanctuary that we now know) a huge bell of over 8 tons, which was installed above the chapel in 1845. There was certainly nowhere in the world such a small chapel possessing such a massive bell!

 

In 1851, the administrators of Notre-Dame de la Garde asked the Minister of War , moreover without really expecting a positive reply, for permission to pull down the little chapel and replace it by a bigger sanctuary surmounted by a bell-tower. Like the Chapel, this new sanctuary would also be inside the fort. Despite the objections of certain officers who feared that the construction of the new sanctuary might harm the defensive potential of the fort, the Minister’s advisors approved and he granted the request on February 5th 1852.

 

The directors of Notre-Dame de la Garde asked the architects to draw up the plans of the new sanctuary. They had to choose between two projects: a church of neo-gothic style and a church of neo-roman style. It was the second project that was selected. And, because the basilica was decorated later with mosaics of byzantine inspiration, one usually calls it romano-byzantine. Its architect was Jacques Henri Espérandieu : he was then only 23 years old … and he was of the Protestant faith.

 

 The first stone was laid on September 11th 1853 by the Bishop of Marseilles, Mgr Eugène de Mazenod. The faithful made donations to finance the construction. But, during the early years, money often grew short and, on several occasions, work had to be interrupted. After 8 years work on the site, on the death of Mgr de Mazenod in 1861, they had finished excavating the crypt in the rock, but, of the church above, only the side-walls and the base of the bell-tower had been built. So there remained to be built the vault of the nave, the dome and most of the tower. Work was speeded up by the successor of Mgr Patrice Cruice and, on the 4th of June 1864 the sanctuary could be consecrated, with an unfinished tower, by Cardinal Villecourt, member of the Papal Curia surrounded by 41 bishops.

 

 

The building of the tower continued and, in 1866, one could install the big bell whose size was henceforth much better proportioned to the dimensions of the sanctuary, and one could pass on to erecting the pedestal of the monumental statue,

 

 

The work of Eugène Lequesne, it is not in solid metal, but created by the Christofle company -which still exists- using a process new to the period : galvanoplasty. One made latex moulds of the four sections. One plunged them in a bath of copper sulphate and, by electrolosis, a few millimetres of copper were deposited on the moulds. Made in Paris. These sections arrived in Marseilles by railway in December 1869. One then covered them in gold leaf.

 

 

In May-June 1870, they were hauled to the top of the tower and fixed to the metal framework already in place. Since then, the statue is re-gilded about every twenty-five yars. It is 11,2 metrs high and weighs 9,796 kg

 

 

Notre-Dame de la Garde

There remained to be done all the interior furnishing. In 1872, one laid the mosaic floor of the Choir, and then the mosaic floor of the nave. Between 1882 and 1884 one placed the first ornamental mosaics: the one for the demi-cupola of the apse with its wonderful birds and, beneath, nine medallions illustrating as many invocations from the litanies to the Holy Virgin.

 

 

In 1884, the provisional high altar was destroyed in a fire, and so one began to build the high altar that we know. It was consecrated on the 26th April 1886 by Cardinal Lavigerie, bishop of Algiers, who, whilst still the young bishop of Nancy had been present at the consecration of the sanctuary in June 1864. He was well-known at Notre-Dame de la Garde, for he used to call there every time he passed on his numerous journeys between France and Algiers.

 

Between 1890 and 1892, one laid the other mosaics : in the rest of the Choir, inside the big cupola, in the three cupolas which form the vault and the nave. Within the basilica, mosaics cover everywhere except the side-walls . They cover a surface of 1,200 sq. metres and are composed of more than 12 million tessella (i.e small pieces) These mosaics are magnificent because those who designed them were inspired by very beautiful mosaics of the 5th and 6th centuries found in Rome and Ravenna..

 

To ease the climb up to Notre-Dame de la Garde for the faithful, several engineers had, since 1869, presented plans to the municipality for funicular railways leading through the streets of Marseilles. But these projects came to nothing, for, in such matters, legislation was rather hazy and the Mayor was not too sure whether authority rested with himself or with the Prefect.

 

Then, in 1889, the engineer Emile Maslin took matters into his own hands. Taking inspiration from the lifts incorporated in the Tour Eiffel which had just been built in Paris, he had the idea of building a lift which would rise almost vertically up the face of an old quarry. This enginer reached an agreement with the owner of the land where the departure station was to be built. As it was a purely private matter, the lift was built quite legally without it being necessary to ask for the authority of public bodies. … It was in use from 1892 until 1967 and was demolisshed in 1964. As for the building of the basilica, it concluded in 1897 with the placing of the heavy bronze doors.

 

In 1914, huge celebrations were organised to mark the 7th centenary of Notre-Dame de la Garde and the 50th anniversary of the consecration of the basilica. But of course this date also marks the beginning of the world war, a war which, strangely, turns out to be an important date in the history of our sanctuary.

 

For the first time, in fact, tanks and aircraft had been used in warfare. After this, Military High Command realised that fortresses built between the 15th and 18th centuries would be useless from now on. So there was no need to carry on spending money on their maintenance. It was better to demilitarise them and give them away. The Bishop of Marseilles appeared interested, for the directors of the sanctuary did not have a hall where the faithful could gather apart from the basilica and the crypt. In fact, whilst the fortress was of interest to the Army, the Minister of War would not have authorised them to build against the outer walls of the fort any buildings that might have weakened their defences.

 

Representatives of the Diocese and those of the Army came together and, very quickly, agreed on an exchange: The Army would give to the Diocese all the top of Garde Hill and would receive in exchange a house in the centre of Marseilles. But the legal dossier was very complex, for several Ministries were involved, and it advanced very slowly. It was May 3rd, 1934 when the President of the Republic signed the decree of «declassification» (i.e demilitarisation of the fort) In 1936, even before the exchange was signed, the diocese began, with the agreement of the civil authorities, to build along the walls of the fortress (on the seaward side) a building destined to lodge the nuns connected with the sanctuary.

 

 

On the 21st July 1941, in front of the Prefect of the Bouches-du-Rhône Department, the act of exchange was signed by representatives of the State and by Mgr Louis Borel who was, at one and the same time, Vicaire Général of the Diocese and Rector of Notre-Dame de la Garde.

 

France was at that time governed by Marshal Pétain, but as it happened, he never made use of any favour granted by the Government. In fact, the act of exchange was ready in 1939, that is, under the Third Republic, and the signature should have been applicable then. But a new World War had just broken out and this apparently very secondary matter of a signature was postponed. In the event, the State gave to the Diocese the 61.839 sq metres at the top of the hill and received from the bishopric a two-storey house lying in Montevideo Cul de Sac, of a total area of 1,380 sq. mtrs, along with a sum of 35,000 francs. Contrary to what one might think, the State did not lose in the bargain, for, the site being classified, the land on top of Garde Hill has no pecuniary value. The State even benefitted handsomely, for in 1970 it was able to resell very well to a promoter the little house in Montevideo Street which was replaced then by a building several storeys high.

 

 

Between 2000 and 2008, under the direction of the architect Xavier David, many restoration projects began on the sanctuary. Firstly, outside jobs: in particular one had to replace the green stones which, because of pollution, had partly decomposed. Next there were interior jobs: first the marbles of the basilica and the stonework of the Crypt were cleaned; and the mosaics, some of which had lost their tessellae through the bombing in August 1944, were restored by experts under the direction of Michel Patrizio. And the lighting system was very much improved, bringing out the true value of our magnificent mosaics.

 

Source:http://www.notredamedelagarde.com