Visit to Notre Dame de la Garde

Today, I visited one of the great Marseille landmarks, the Basilica of Notre Dame de la Garde. I have seen it years ago, but since then all the mosaics have been restored. When I was at La SAinte-Baume, you may recall that I met two people working on the restoration of the HOtellerie refectory floor. They had worked on the mosaics of the Basilica.

The cornerstone of the basilica was laid in 1853. It is a memorial for sailors lost at sea and a call to the Blessed Mother to protect sailors. It stands on a rocky hill overlooking the whole city.
Here are a few views.

View of Notre Dame de la Garde from the Old Port. It is about a mile away.

Closer view.

From the terrace in front.

View of the old port.

View to the north.

View to the south-east.

View of the nave and sanctuary.

The ceiling vaults - all mosaics

Sanctuary

Models of ships hanging from the ceiling

More ship models

Detail of the Apse mosaic.

The mosaic floors.

View into the dome.

This evening I will take myself to the Old Port. There is a square that is filled with restaurants.

I will be driving into Italy again this week. Destination is Turin to see the shroud. I will then turn west over the alps towards Grenoble and the LaSalette shrine. More to come soon.

And for all of you who may be following the blog and don't know about the St. John Neumann Lakeside Family Festival, go to http://www.sjnfreetown.org/ and click on Lakeside Festival. There are many pictures of past festivals. See what I am missing this spring.

A bientot.