Oh bastard! Oh bored with! Oh Good Mom! Was that final pastis an excessive amount of? We see double Marseille. As a result of now a second Good Mom watches over the town, put in on the prime of King René’s tower of Fort Saint-Jean, on the entrance to Old Port, as a part of a exhibition dedicated to Good Mothersthose that give delivery and cherish, seen to Mucem till August 31.
“The Good Mom, she represents all of Marseille,” sums up a child who got here with a social heart from Martigues to go to his illustrious neighbor. “It’s the solar, the ocean, the salt,” added a second shortly after taking a photograph collectively from the port, in keeping with the Good Mom beneath the gaze of their host. “We see it in every single place,” provides a 3rd.
If she can’t fairly be contemplated from in every single place, the Virgin and Youngster can, nonetheless, be seen from in every single place. From the heights of the northern districts to the Outdated Port. From the Borély seashores to l’Estaque. Motorways, the A50 from Aubagne, the 55 or the A7 coming down from Lyon. Arriving by sea, after all. But in addition by the rails, the traveler with the ability to see it as quickly as they go away the Saint-Charles station sq.. Previously, it may be seen from the bends of the Vélodrome stadium, earlier than the set up of a roof for Euro 2016.
Gaudin, the Good Mom and the CMA-CGM tower
“From the sky too,” provides a aircraft pilot stopping over in Marseille. “It’s a part of the panorama that we move alongside earlier than touchdown in Marignane in a northerly wind,” provides the fifty-year-old, seated at a café within the Outdated Port going through Notre-Dame de la Garde. “Even when the altitude crushes the reduction a bit, it stands out clearly though the Vélodrome stadium is much more seen from the sky. »
On a 149 m limestone peak, the Bonne Mère raised by the basilica, its bell tower and its pedestal is the best level of the town. It’s mentioned right here that the venture submitted by the architect of the CMA-CGM tower, offered for 150 m in top for this primary “skyscraper” in Marseille and that Jean-Claude Gaudin, then mayor of the town and a fervent Catholic, had expressly requested that it not exceed Notre-Dame de la Garde. Legend or want granted: the shipowner’s tower is 147 m.
Camille, whose café overlooks the “Good Mom”, is delighted: “Symbolically, it strikes me loads. We did not have sufficient of a single virgin to look at over all of the Marseillais and Marseillaises. I additionally see an emblem of sorority, of those two younger moms going through one another with their little one of their arms. »
Sadly for Camille, this duplicate which measures three meters excessive, or eight lower than the unique, is not going to stay in Marseille indefinitely, being meant to observe the exhibition presently offered on the Mucem. Its development is the work of the Christofle workshop, a Parisian goldsmith who was already the creator of the unique, delivered in 1869. “Like everybody who is aware of Marseille, the Good Mom is a robust image. It was apparent for us to take part in its replica 150 years later,” says Hamdi Chatti, president of the workshop.
“There are literally a whole lot of Bonne Mères in Marseille,” continues Caroline Chenu, co-curator of the exhibition. There are actually practically 300 statues of virgins, inbuilt niches on the corners of the partitions. “These girls in gold had been the sailors’ lookouts. Notre-Dame de la Garde was first a lighthouse and Marian worship has been celebrated there because the 2nd century and a temple devoted to Artemis. Then we moved from the moms of the gods, like Artemis, Isis, Gaia, Demeter and others, to the mom of God,” recollects the commissioner.
Ex-voto and Olympian hope
A spot of worship to which the hopes and eyes of the individuals of Marseillais have all the time been raised. “The Good Mom is not going to have been sufficient for the Marseillais”, launched PPDA in its “20 Heures” of Could 30, 1991, the day after defeat within the Champions Cup ultimate in opposition to Etoile Rouge. Nevertheless, OM gamers and supporters didn’t fail to burn just a few candles there. Just like the votive choices of miraculous sailors of the seas, the processions of the Olympians and their fans undoubtedly belong to the basilica’s previous.
However this one has simply been given a youthful look. The renovation work was completed in December 2025providing for nearly ten months the sight, not very nice to the eyes of the individuals of Marseille, of a statue imprisoned in a scaffolding cage whose metallic shine gave one to remorse its normal golden reflection. Adorned with 30,000 new gold leaves, all financed by some 40,000 donors, the Virgin and Youngster has now regained all its splendor and a bit extra.
On its golden crown, small ICAO lamps have been positioned which emit a crimson gentle level to make it seen to plane. This is sufficient to disturb some Marseillais, like Clément, who didn’t miss this “not very fairly, a bit bizarre” element. Let’s hope this does not lead the sailors astray.
