Cathédrale de la Major

The Cathédrale de la Major, formally the Cathédrale Sainte-Marie-Majeure, stands on the Esplanade de la Major at Place de la Major in Marseille's 2nd arrondissement, in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of France. It was built between 1852 and 1893 in a Roman-Byzantine revival style, designed first by Léon Vaudoyer and continued after his death by Henri Espérandieu. The project began under Napoleon III, at a time when Marseille was growing rapidly as the Mediterranean gateway of the French empire after the opening of the Suez Canal, and the cathedral was intended to express that confidence on a monumental scale. It is one of the largest cathedrals built in France in the 19th century. The exterior is striped in alternating bands of white stone from La Couronne and green stone from Florence, topped by domes and a pair of towers, and the interior uses marble, mosaics and carved decoration, with a large central dome over the crossing. Beside it stands the surviving apse and a few bays of the old cathedral, the Vieille Major, a Romanesque building of the 12th century built on the site of an earlier Christian structure and partly demolished to make way for the new one. The visitor can compare the two buildings directly. The cathedral has no museum curation, but the church holds works of religious art and the tombs of bishops, and the Vieille Major preserves a 16th-century altarpiece and sculpture associated with the Renaissance. Restoration campaigns have cleaned the facades and repaired the stonework, and the esplanade has been reshaped by the redevelopment of the nearby docks and the arrival of the Mucem. Together the building and the waterfront make an attractive stop on a walk from the Panier district to the Euromed area, and the cathedral's scale and striped stone make it one of the most photographed monuments in Marseille. Admission is free, but opening hours should be confirmed locally.