Basilique Notre Dame d'Afrique ( English: “Basilica of Our Lady of Africa”) is a

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica (Greek Basiliké) was a large public building with multiple functions that was typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek Eas ...

Algiers Algiers is the capital city of Algeria as well as the capital of the Algiers Province; it extends over many Communes of Algeria, communes without having its own separate governing body. With 2,988,145 residents in 2008Census 14 April 2008: Offi ...

Algeria Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...

. It is the origin of the modern Catholic devotion to Our Lady of Africa.

Pope Pius IX Pope Pius IX (; born Giovanni Maria Battista Pietro Pellegrino Isidoro Mastai-Ferretti; 13 May 1792 – 7 February 1878) was head of the Catholic Church from 1846 to 1878. His reign of nearly 32 years is the longest verified of any pope in hist ...

granted two Pontifical decrees towards the shrine on the same day on 15 April 1876: * The first decree invoked to canonically crown the venerated Marian image enshrined within. The coronation rites was executed by the Archbishop of Carthage

Charles Lavigerie Charles Martial Allemand Lavigerie, M. Afr. (31 October 1825 – 26 November 1892) was a French Catholic prelate and missionary who served as Archbishop of Carthage and Primate of Africa from 1884 to 1892. He previously served as Archbishop o ...

on 30 April 1876. * The second decree which raised the sanctuary to the status of Basilica based on an "immemorial custom". (

Pope Benedict XV Pope Benedict XV (; ; born Giacomo Paolo Giovanni Battista della Chiesa, ; 21 November 1854 – 22 January 1922) was head of the Catholic Church from 1914 until his death in January 1922. His pontificate was largely overshadowed by World War I a ...

later regulated to limit these privileges in 1918 to Papal edicts unless an ancient custom already refers to a building as a "Basilica".)

History

It was Louis-Antoine-Augustin Pavy, who served as the Bishop of Algiers from 1846 to 1866, who paved the way for its construction. The

was inaugurated in 1872, after fourteen years of construction. It was founded by

. Its architect, Jean-Eugène Fromageau, who had been appointed the chief architect for ecclesiastical buildings in

French Algeria French Algeria ( until 1839, then afterwards; unofficially ; ), also known as Colonial Algeria, was the period of History of Algeria, Algerian history when the country was a colony and later an integral part of France. French rule lasted until ...

in 1859, employed a

Neo-Byzantine Neo-Byzantine architecture (also referred to as Byzantine Revival) was a Revivalism (architecture), revival movement, most frequently seen in religious, institutional and public buildings. It incorporates elements of the Byzantine architecture, ...

style. Its floor plan is unusual as the

choir A choir ( ), also known as a chorale or chorus (from Latin ''chorus'', meaning 'a dance in a circle') is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform or in other words ...

is situated on the southeast instead of the usual east side of the building. The basilica contains 46 stained glass windows installed in the 19th century. They were blown out during a bombing of the area in April 1943 and have been restored twice since the end of World War II. In 1930 an organ, built in 1911, was donated to the basilica by the wife of the late Albert Weddell, a wealthy English resident in Algiers at Villa Georges and friend of the French composer

Camille Saint-Saëns Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns (, , 9October 183516 December 1921) was a French composer, organist, conductor and pianist of the Romantic music, Romantic era. His best-known works include Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso (1863), the Piano ...

who had inaugurated the organ at Weddell's home. The basilica was damaged by the 2003 Boumerdès earthquake. A reconstruction project was initiated by Archbishop Henri Teissier in 2003, but work on the project did not start until the spring of 2007. The total cost of restoration was 5.1 million

euros The euro (currency symbol, symbol: euro sign, €; ISO 4217, currency code: EUR) is the official currency of 20 of the Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union. This group of states is officially known as the ...

. The project took three years to complete. Notre Dame d'Afrique holds a daily mass at 18:00, with the Friday mass taking place at 10.30 instead. Mass also takes place in different languages throughout the month. Today the basilica regularly hosts cultural activities, such as music concerts and exhibitions.

Location

Notre Dame d'Afrique is on the north side of Algiers, on a 124 m (407 ft) cliff overlooking the Bay of

. It formerly could be reached from the

city centre A city centre, also known as an urban core, is the Commerce, commercial, Culture, cultural and often the historical, Politics, political, and geographic heart of a city. The term "city centre" is primarily used in British English, and closely e ...

by a cable car. It can be considered to be the counter-piece to the church of

Notre-Dame de la Garde Notre-Dame de la Garde (; : Titles of Mary, Our Lady of the Guard), known to local citizens as ''la Bonne Mère'' (French for 'the Good Mother'), is a Catholic Church, Catholic Basilicas in the Catholic Church, basilica in Marseille and the city ...

on the other side of the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

Importance

Its symbolic and religious importance can be summed up by the inscription on the

apse In architecture, an apse (: apses; from Latin , 'arch, vault'; from Ancient Greek , , 'arch'; sometimes written apsis; : apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical Vault (architecture), vault or semi-dome, also known as an ' ...

: ''Notre Dame d'Afrique priez pour nous et pour les Musulmans'' ("Our Lady of Africa, pray for us and for the Muslims").

Gallery

File:Notre Dame d'Afrique 2010.jpg, File:Algiers_Notre_Dame_d%27Afrique.jpg, File:NOTRE DAME D'AFRIQUE.ALGER.jpg, File:Our Lady of Bab el Oued - Algiers.jpg, File:Notre Dame d'Afrique a Alger en 2010.jpg, File:Basilique Notre Dame d'Afrique.JPG, File:Notre Dame d'Afrique at night.jpg, File:كنيسة السيدة الإفريقية - الجزائر العاصمة.jpg,

References

External links

The Cemetery, with Chapel, Algiers, Algeria
{{DEFAULTSORT:Notre Dame d'Afrique Basilica churches in Algeria Buildings and structures in Algiers Byzantine Revival architecture in Algeria French colonial architecture in Algeria Roman Catholic churches completed in 1872 Tourist attractions in Algiers 19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Algeria Black Madonnas Pieds-noirs history