Churches of Marseille

 

You are fascinated by history, by architecture or by religious furnitures then do not hesitate to visit the various cathedrals, basilicas and churches which the city of Marseille counts.

Built between the V th century and XIX th century, in Roman Provençal style, Byzantine, Byzantine Roman (original architectural combination), Gothic, Roman Baroque, these buildings will fill your curiosity!

 

Because of the numerous places of cult in Marseille and knowing that all are not opened to the tourism, I suggest you a unique tour (duration of 2 hours, fares 57 euros) centred around 4 inescapable monuments accessible to the visit : la basilique Notre Dame de la Garde (the basilica Notre Dame de la Garde), l'abbaye Saint Victor (the Abbey Holy Victor), La vieille charité (the old Charity) and la Cathedrale de la Major (Cathedral of Major).

Please note that this tour will allow you to admire also the outside architecture of l'Eglise Saint Laurent (the church Holy Laurent), l'Eglise du Calvaire (the church of the Calvary), l'Eglise des Augustins (the church of augustins), l'Eglise de Notre Dame du Mont (Our Lady of the Mountain) and l'Eglise des Réormés (the church of Réformés).

 

* see fares and conditions

La Cour des Accoules, Chapelle et clocher du calvaire

La Cour des Accoules offers a curious religious decoration.

On the right hand, the chapel of the Calvary in rotunda with dome of the beginning of XIX th century. At the bottom, crypts where be seen groups of the passion, open on a heap of false rocks dug by a cave of Lourdes, by a cave of holy Madeleine and surmounted by a Calvary. Above stands up the bell tower of Accoules from XIV th century. Only remains a church destroyed under the revolution and the base of which is that of the tower Sauveterre (X th century.)

Église Saint Laurent

(Chuch Holy Laurent)

Located at the end of the mount Holy Laurent, in the place of a heathen temple.

The Massalistes built a temple to Apollon on this hill, which served to the defence of their town. It is in this point that the Roman legions became established when Caesar had crushed Massilia. In 850, the bishop Babon, built a defensive set in which the inhabitants looked for refuge in case of danger. It is then that was built the church Holy Laurent.

In pure style Provençal Roman, Saint Laurent was the church of the sailors and the fishermen. It was known for the traditions which were attached. Particular masses for the sailors, the offerings of fishes...

Église des Carmes

(Church of the carmelites)

Church Our Lady of the Mount Carmel, on 1620, was rebuilt in the second quarter of the 17th century. Its beautiful baroque gate with bossages of the middle of the 17th century, preserved its statuary of origin and is embedded in a facade of cement of the 19th century.

The church was approximately amputated by a third part of its length in 1898 when was demolished the dome of the choir, built two centuries earlier and which threatened ruin. It was the object, under the second Empire, of a surprising "saint-sulpicien" restoration on the initiative of the priest Décanis, which accumulated more than three hundred statues there.

Église Saint Cannat dite des Prêcheurs

(Church Holy Cannat said of the Moralizers)

From the old convent of the Dominicans or the brothers moralizers, built in XVI th century, there is not more than a church which became in 1803 a parochial church under the name of Saint Cannat. The church of the convent of the Moralizers remains, in spite of its mutilations, the best example in Marseille of the sanctuaries which the male monastic communities of modern Times tried hard to build in cities.

Église Saint Vincent de Paul dite des Réformés

Built in the place of a convent of reformed augustins. In Gothic ogival style of XIII th century, it was built between 1855 and 1888 by the architect Reybaud on the plans of the abbot Pougnet.

It constitutes an eloquent example of the will to synthetize the characteristics of the French Gothic : the plan would be "burgondo" of Lyons basilical, the general party inspired by Holy Bernard of Roman and Holy-Antoine de Viennois, but the nef, the transept and the facade is explicitly diverted from the cathedrals of the Parisian Pond. Doors and stained glasses are remarkable and the whole sacred furniture is of high-quality.

Notre Dame du Mont

(Our lady of the montain)

It occupies the place of a very old sanctuary, which was the place of pilgrimage of the Inhabitants of Marseilles before being supplanted during 17th 18 th centuries by Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde.

The present building dates for the main part of the Restoration, with addition of vast chapels on 1840 (sacred Heart by F. Reybaud) and on 1890 ( Perpetual Help) ). Neo-classic facade in cement with bottom-relief in polychromatic lave of 1898. The church worths especially by the interest of its paintings.

Église Saint Joseph

(Church Holy Joseph)

The facade of this church, of basilical plan, was achieved during 1861, upon the drawings of P. Coste, by Ferrié, architect of the city. In a neo-classic style, it is characterized by a wall party which translates the internal divisions, animated by a portico of Corinthian order few produting out because of the narrow-mindedness of the street; simple volumes underlined by two superimposed triangular pediments.

This synagogue is one of the most remarkable built in France under the second Empire. Salomon Nathan's work, it was inaugurated on September 22nd, 1864.

If for inside, the artist was inspired by the most beautiful productions of the Arabic and Byzantine architecture, the architect especially seems to have reinterpreted in the facade, with eclecticism and talent, the resources of the Romanic art, maybe to remind the important Jewish community which had known Marseille about the Middle Age.

Église Saint Ferréol dite des Augustins

It dates of the end of the XV th century, and was built on the vestiges of a more ancient church which belonged to the "Knight Templars". In 1804, it was amputated by 2 spans and endowed a bit further in 1874 of a facade in cement.

Église du Sacré Coeur

(Church of the Sacred Heart)

The construction of the church of the Sacred Heart was begun in 1920 on very ambitious plans and complex program, because the building had to commemorate at the same moment the plague of 1720 the bicentenary of which we celebrated, to serve as memorial of the war 1914-1918 and to endow finally Marseille of a big sanctuary reminding the major importance of the consecration for the Sacred Heart.

This work associates a discreet romano-byzantine influence to an eclectic inspiration.

The very huge church of the chartreuse of Marseille was raised between 1680 and 1702. Without initially foreseen any dome and without statuary of the facade, considered too sumptuary, the building is nevertheless the most beautiful religious realization of the 17th century in Marseille with the chapel of the Charity. It is thus characterized by its big sobriety, significant of the severity of the order of the Carthusian monks. However, shoulders have a baroque decoration which contrasts with the austerity of the facade and of the nef.

Église arménienne du Prado

(Armenian church of Prado)

The Armenian church, built by A. Tahtadjyan in 1931, is a remarkable building, in the same time sanctuary and cultural memorial. The forms and the decoration of the Armenian Romanic art harmonize with the below-relief representation on the bell tower-hall of the main monuments in Armenia

Eglise Saint Michel

(Church Holy Michel)

The church Saint Michel was realized from 1849 on an ambitious Gothic party but remained unfinished and deprived towers, sculpture of ornament and by the statuary initially foreseen on the facade. The stained glasses of E. Thibaud constitutes its main interest.

Temple protestant

(Protestant temple)

 

The Grignan street contains the Protestant temple, the only important religious work realized in Marseille by Mr Penchaud (1822-1825) : very sober neo-classic facade with doric péristyle.

Église des dominicains

(Church of the Dominicans)

Considered as one of the masterpieces of the 19th century, the church of the Dominicans of Marseille is one of the most characteristic realizations of the architect of Lyon, Pierre Bossan, the author of Notre-Dame-de-Fourvière. Dedicated to the very Holy Rosary, the building shows the will of the Dominicans, reinstalled in Marseille, to resume the spiritual management of this worship very popular in the city, where it had remained in the church of their old convent, Saint-Cannat, become parochial.

Website : www.marseille.dominicains.com

Église Orthodoxe

(Greek Orthodox Church)

Église Sainte-Eusébie

Built from 1855 to 1858 in the "Byzantine style" which is then the most current, this church with dome is the most luxurious of those who were raised outside the city : in 1858, it cost one hundred thousand golden-francs. We notice the charm of the facade which rises in the heart of a small place, the science of the plan and the care of its sculptured decoration.

 

The small church Saint-Cassien was built in the last third part of the 19th century in a very well-kept neo-Romanic style. The decoration multiplies the references to the sarcophaguses of Saint Victor's abbey, considered traditionally as established by Jean Cassien.

 

Église des bernardines

In 1740, the reformed Cistercian said "bernardines", established in Marseille since 1637, decides to leave their convent of the Vieux Port, surrounded with stores and with soap factories, and to build a new one out of the doors of the city.

This magnificent convent gives evidence of a quite Cistercian sobriety. The inside is very marked, as all the church, by the research for a grand austerity. Transformed today into secondary school, the church is not open to tourism. .

Église Saint Joseph du cabot

From the road we have a beautiful sight of the chapel Saint-Joseph-du-Cabot, perched on a rocky where from outcrop we perceive Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde.

This graceful monument was raised in 1876, as a replacement of a first sanctuary, which had created an active pilgrimage. P.-M. Bérengier could have realized in reduced dimension the project of Gothic basilica there which he had proposed for Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde, to which the council of construction preferred by one vote of majoritythe project of Espérandieu.