The Cathedral of Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption anchors the religious quarter of Saint-Pierre. The original mid-nineteenth-century cathedral, a large neo-Romanesque structure, was destroyed in the 1902 eruption; the current building, designated a co-cathedral of the Archdiocese of Fort-de-France, was constructed on the ruins in the decades that followed. Substantial fragments of the original walls still stand beside the rebuilt church.
What makes the site interesting is the layering: you can see the old stonework — thick masonry walls of volcanic stone, collapsed arches, the footprint of the original apse — immediately beside the functioning modern church. The bell that melted out of shape in the eruption, one of the most famous objects from the disaster, was recovered from this site and is now displayed at the Musée Vulcanologique. The rebuilt church is still active; Mass is held weekly and the interior is open to visitors outside service hours.