Basilique de Sainte-Marie-Majeure (la Major)

Cathedral or Major Basilica of St. Mary Major (Major) that evokes the East by the Roman-Byzantine style, is the Cathedral of Marseille.
It was built in the mid-nineteenth century, between 1852 and 1893.

Then for the city a period of economic growth, social and demographic. It is adorned important buildings: the Gare Saint-Charles (1848), the Palais de la Bourse (1852), the Palais Longchamp (1862), the Palais du Pharo (1854), the Palace of Arts (1864) or Notre-Dame de la Garde (1864). It is in this context that decided to build a new cathedral, on plans by architect Leon Vaudoyer.

The Cathedral of the Major stands on an esplanade between the Old Port and the "new" commercial port, near the district of Joliette and Fort St. John. Its architecture and interior design, marble and porphyry, it look especially for a religious building.

It was erected in minor basilica by Pope Leo XIII January 24, 1896.