Notre-Dame de la Garde sits on a 154-metre limestone outcrop south of the Vieux-Port, the highest natural point in Marseille. The current basilica, built between 1853 and 1864 by Henri-Jacques Espérandieu, replaced a 16th-century chapel on the same site. Espérandieu went hard at the Romano-Byzantine style: striped white-and-green marble, mosaics, an enormous gilded statue of the Virgin and Child crowning the bell tower.
The interior is small but extraordinary, packed with mosaics underfoot and ex-voto offerings on the walls — paintings of ships in storms, model boats hanging from the ceiling, plaques of gratitude from sailors and soldiers who escaped disaster. The view from the terrace is the real reason most people climb up: Marseille spread out below, the Vieux-Port directly underneath, the islands offshore and the Calanques south. Reach it on foot up steep streets (about 45 minutes from the port) or by the petit train tourist trolley.