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Notre-Dame de la Garde — known locally as 'la Bonne Mère' (the Good Mother) — is Marseille's most iconic landmark, a Romano-Byzantine basilica perched atop a 149-meter limestone hill. Its gilded statue of the Virgin Mary is visible from every corner of the city and far out to sea.
The hill has been a lookout point since antiquity. The current basilica was built between 1853 and 1864, replacing a medieval chapel. During the Liberation of Marseille in August 1944, the basilica was damaged by German gunfire — bullet holes are still visible on the facade.