#esperandieu

The Basilica

Source: Marvellous Provence

The Basilique Notre Dame de la Garde (Henri-Jacques Espérandieu, architect, constructed 1853-1897), or la Bonne Mère, in Marseille, France, could never be called beautiful, and yet it commands attention from almost every point in the city, sitting atop the highest elevation in the center of town, just south of the Old Port.

Source: Marie Bertocchio on Flickr

My first view of the city, arriving by train in 1979, was dominated by the distant illuminated golden Mother and Child atop the basilica’s spire, a pinpoint of light in the distance that seemed to welcome me, as I stood outside the Gare St. Charles, itself elevated on a hill. That same day, I climbed the steep streets from the Vieux-Port to the summit on which stood la Bonne Mère, as the violent Mistral wind threatened to send me tumbling from its hilltop site.

Source: jean luc B. on Flickr

The neo-Byzantine edifice appears rather clumsy, its central tower serving only as a pedestal for the over-scaled Virgin and Child, which threatens to crush the whole structure with its weight (the statue is actually hollow, a spiral stairway winding toward its summit).

Inside, however, waits another world. All is glittering mosaic, intersecting vaults, gleaming altar, and votive offerings. These offerings take the form of wall plaques praising Notre Dame for safe delivery from the sea, and of ship models suspended by thin wires from the nave ceiling. Ironically, I noticed one votive plaque dedicated to Frédéric Mistral, Provencal poet and namesake of the violent wind that rushes down the Rhone valley, threatening to topple everything in its path.

View from N.-D. de la Garde toward the Chateau d'If and the Mediterranean

Nave, Notre Dame de la Garde

At the end of 1979, on my 24th birthday, my mother and I took the bus up the hill to the Basilica, after a lunch of bouillabaisse at Les Deux Soeurs restaurant on the Vieux-Port (now sadly gone). My mother picked up some souvenirs at the gift shop. Decades later, in 2015, I revisited the Basilica and lit a candle to my mother’s memory, 32 years after her death.

A candle in memory of my mother

Votive paintings and plaques, N.-D. de la Garde

Souvenirs, N.-D. de la Garde, 1979

The site served as a look-out point from Roman times. A church was originally built there in 1214, and sailors would climb the hill to pray for a safe voyage in prospect or to give thanks for their unharmed return.

King François I ordered a fort to be erected there to protect Marseille from King Charles V of Spain in 1524 - the year that work also began on the Château d'If for the very same reason. François' emblem, the salamander, is still visible in the stonework above the north porch.

Espérandieu was just 24 when he began work on Notre Dame de la Garde. He had a radical - and, at the time, shocking - vision of an exotic, Romano-Byzantine edifice built in multi-coloured striped stone.

Ship mosaic, nave detail, N.-D. de la Garde. Source: Marvellous Provence

The basilica is topped by a monumental statue of the Virgin coated in gold leaf by the sculptor Eugène-Louis Lequesne, installed in 1870. It weighs 9796 kilos / 21600 lbs, and the wrist measurement of the infant Jesus is 1.10 metres / 3.5 feet.

Source: erasmusu

In keeping with the city's heritage of welcoming many cultures, there are many architectural influences at play in the upper sanctuary, with its acres of decoration. The intricate floor and ceiling mosaics depict olives, vines, palm trees and exotic birds and, above the altar, a ship with sails in Marseille's blue and white colours.

I’m motivated to post my reminiscences of this building by the purchase of a book on the Basilica, its architect Esperandieu, and its construction process.

Images from the publication:

Hanging ship models inside the nave:

Source: Alamy

MFK Fisher, in her hommage to Marseille, A Considerable Town, describes vividly her experience of exploring the Basilica of Notre Dame de la Garde:

We could walk clear around the huge ugly basilica, and look in every direction of the compass, from its great terraces and ramparts. Sometimes we held on to each other, to feel safer when the wind blew. Usually we climbed up to the east bastion of the fortress that the church is built on, where it juts out like a gigantic stone ship’s prow. A flat round table, set with a map in mosaic, told us what we were seeing: Vieux Port, the Mediterranean, all the islands…we never tired of looking at it, and never felt dizzy, because the fortress was so mighty and so safe. …Once inside, the place seemed to explode with light and color and rich crazy beauty. It scintillated. It was gay and lightsome. We gasped, and entered with a familiar feeling of delight. And the best part, of course, is what Christians have brought to Notre Dame, to recall their gratefulness. Their ex votos hang from the high vault of the nave on cords that are almost invisible, but that are symbolical of the connection between earth and heaven, and they twirl a little sometimes, very slowly, if there are crowds beneath, or if the mistral is strong outside. There are little  whittled rowboats once brightly painted, and dimestore battleships; there are life rafts and plastic toy submarines and a few streetcars and many airplanes. There is at least one World War II tank, I remember, and a toy ambulance, and my younger daughter swears there is a very small baby buggy. …The odor of thanksgiving is strong, from all these devout emotional symbols, and it is extremely innocent and direct. Fisher, M.F.K., A Considerable Town, in Two Towns in Provence. New York: Random House Vintage Books Edition, 1983, pp. 152-155.

The Architect

Henri-Jacques Espérandieu (22 February 1829 – 11 November 1874) was an architect who made his career in Marseille, and designed some of the city's most well-known landmarks.

Among his works in Marseille is the Cathédrale Sainte-Marie-Majeure, for which he served as director of construction following the death of Léon Vaudoyer, the cathedral's architect, on 9 February 1872. Espérandieu was made responsible for completion of the work, but only survived Vaudoyer by two years.

Cathédrale Sainte-Marie-Majeure

Espérandieu was the designer and director of construction of the Palais Longchamp, sited at the water tower where the water arrives from the Canal de Marseille, and which houses the Museum of Fine Arts and the Natural History Museum.

Palais Longchamp

The Palace of Arts, or Palais Carli, in the city center, now houses the National Academy of Region "Pierre Barbizet." The cube-shaped building features a stone facade and an inner courtyard of red brick.

Palais des Arts, or Palais Carli

The Vierge Dorée is a statue set atop a column, and located near the Marseille St. Charles train station.

Vierge Dorée

Sadly, Espérandieu died on 11 November 1874 at 45 years of age, from pneumonia contracted in the crypt of Notre-Dame de la Garde. He was interred in his home town of Nîmes.

A street in Marseille located near the Palais Longchamp bears his name, as does a ship of the Friuli line. In the courtyard of the Palace of Arts (Palais Carli) a monument to him was installed, including his bust sculpted by André-Joseph Allar on a pedestal decorated with medallions representing his major works, designed byJoseph Letz.

Monument to Espérandieu, bust by Allar, Palais Carli courtyard

An ascent to the top of the structure:

Les milliaires de Rennes, ‡c par L. Decombe...T. Bézier...et le capitaine Ém.-J. Espérandieu... (1892)