Cathédrale Notre-Dame-de-la-Major de Marseille

Marseille

Between the Vieux-Port and La Joliette, by the sea, the cathedrals of Marseille have succeeded one another on the same spot since the 5th century. The first stood to the west of the ancient town, near the Anse de l'Ourse; it is known above all from its baptistery, found in the 18th century and then again in 1850, during the earthworks for the new cathedral: twenty-two metres in internal diameter, the largest in Provence, and even in Gaul according to some authors. Re-established under Bishop Pons I from 977, the church was entirely rebuilt in the middle of the 12th century in pink stone from La Couronne: this is the Romanesque Major, with an octagonal dome over the crossing and a bell tower added in the 14th century. From 1475 to 1481, Francesco Laurana carved there in Carrara marble the altar of Saint Lazarus, whom legend holds to have been the first Bishop of Marseille; its arcading ranks among the very first manifestations of the Renaissance in France. In the 19th century, Marseille grew fast, and Eugène de Mazenod, bishop from 1837, judged his cathedral dilapidated and unworthy of the city: he wrote more than a hundred letters to the authorities. On 26 September 1852, the Prince-President Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte laid the foundation stone of a Romano-Byzantine cathedral designed by Léon Vaudoyer, to the west of the old one. The old one was to disappear; the protests of the Société française pour la conservation des monuments, in 1853, and pressure from the people of Marseille saved its choir and one bay, which can still be seen beside the new one. Vaudoyer died in 1872, his pupil Espérandieu in 1874; the building work, for its part, went on.

Wikipédia — Cathédrale Notre-Dame-de-la-Major ↗

Getting there : Place de la Major, 2nd arrondissement, near the Vieux-Port, the Panier and the Mucem. Free entry; open every day from 10 am to 5.30 pm from January to March and from 10 am to 7 pm from April to October according to the Marseille tourist office (November and December opening times, closures during services and access by public transport to be checked). The remains of the Vieille Major are just to the east of the new cathedral; visit of the interior to be checked.

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound