Notre-Dame de la Garde
Built to the south of the old port and standing on Marseilles highest point 149m above the sea, this Catholic basilica is a major local landmark enjoying views across the city and Gulf of Marseille. The current building was completed in 1864 and is built in alternating layers of dark green limestone and pure white limestone. It has a broad, plain, fort like bottom section, topped by a tall, ornate, Byzantine church. The upper church has a high square bell tower with an 11m gilded Madonna and Child at one end and an octagonal domed transept at the other. Inside the church there are many varieties of coloured marbles and multicoloured pictorial mosaics.
La Canebiere
As Marseille’s longest high street, it was built by Louis VIX in 1666. Running from the cities historic old port in the west for 1km to the east. La Canebiere’s heyday was the late 19th and early 20th century during Frances Third Republic and with its grand buildings, commerce and rich intellectual life, la Canabiere was well known for its culture and was a symbol of Marseille. La Canabiere is a link back to France’s grand days of empire, when Marseille was its major port for the nations ambitions of a global empire.
Abbaye Saint Victor
Named after a 6th century local Roman soldier who became a saint and martyr, the Church of Saint Victoire has an imposing Romanesque fortress like construction with a much older crypt underneath. The crypt contains early Christian tombs and sarcophagi which date from as early as the 6th century.