NOTRE-DAME-DE-LA GARDE Home Page An Astonishing Architectural Style... ...And Astonishing Particularities Our Lady of the Guard in numbers "Our Good Mother" from all directions Let's go Inside... A story of abiding tenacity living Faith To Welcome You FORUM A few books

This is not at all one of those Marseilles exaggerations : the lift could be heard throughout the city, the author of these lines who was 34 years old when this marvel made its last trip and who knew it well, bears witness to the fact ! Characteristic watchfulness of "Our Good Mother " ? Soundness of the machinery despite its noisy appearance ? There was never an accident from 1892 to 1967, the length of time during which this amazing machine was in use. Furthermore,the lift was efficient despite its picturesque aspects : Father Levet notes on August 15 1892 the noisy machinery carried 15000 people during the day ! With a surprising distribution, since 7000 passengers rode up and 8000 rode down (one would have expected the opposite). The lift was completed by a big metal footbridge, 100 metres long, made by Gustave Eiffel ( the engineer who created the famous Parisian tower ), a footbridge which spanned a void betwen the platform where the lift arrived and the terrace near the basilica. Below, the departure "station" was of course built in a style resembling the Romanesque-Byzantine, and a slight suggestion of a pavillon from the 1889 Universal Exhibition. Despite the great number of passengers the steam-powered hydraulic lift was never a prosperous business and the automobile finished it off. It was demolished, which is one of the mistakes in Marseilles urbanism adding to the Parisian mistake of demolishing the great covered market, a masterpiece of metallic architecture. After it was no longer in use, why not have kept that extraordinary lift in place as a witness to mechanical construction techniques, and particularly those of the 19th century industrial age of iron. n.b. For those who are interested in local history, there is a little book (in French) stuffed with interesting details : Cet ascenseur qui montait à la Bonne Mère by Father Robert Levet (1992, éditions Tacussel). Fortunately, Our Lady of the Guard is a place where there are plenty of fascinating things to discover, even without the lift.