Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière

About

The Notre-Dame de Fourvière Basilica overlooks the city of Lyon at the top of the Fourvière hill since the end of the 19th century. It is built about the location of the old Trajan Forum, Vetus Forum. In the middle of the Middle Ages there was established a cult of St.Thomas of Canterbury and then, quickly, of the Virgin Mary.

This double cult is realized with the construction from 1630 of a place of devotion, the chapel Saint-Thomas of Lyon. Following a vow made in 1642 by the aldermen of Lyon to remove an epidemic of plague from the city, an annual pilgrimage was established. In the 19th century, at the initiative of Cardinal Louis-Jacques-Maurice de Bonald, a golden statue of Mary was erected on the bell tower of the chapel, which was enhanced and strengthened on this occasion.

At the same time, the proposal to build a basilica, both to welcome more and more visitors and to thank you for the protection of Lyon during the Franco-German war of 1870, was accepted; its construction began in 1872. The architecture of the basilica, of neo-Byzantine style, is the work of Pierre Bossan, who, obliged to supervise the construction site of the...