- Notre Dame d'Afrique
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Notre Dame d'Afrique
Interior of the Notre-Dame d'Afrique, on the wall written in French : Notre-dame d'Afrique, Pray for us and for the Muslims.Notre Dame d'Afrique (Our Lady of Africa) is a Catholic church that is the basilica of Algiers, Algeria.
The basilica was inaugurated in 1872, after fourteen years of construction. Its architect, Jean Eugène Fromageau, who had been appointed the chief architect for ecclesiastical buildings in French Algeria in 1859, employed a Neo-Byzantine style that was in vogue for church architecture in France at that time. Its floorplan is unusual as the choir is situated on the southeast instead of the usual east side of the building.
Notre Dame d'Afrique is located on the north side of Algiers, on a 124m (407 ft) cliff overlooking the Bay of Algiers. It formerly could be reached from the city centre by a cable car. The basilica can be considered to be the counter-piece to the church of Notre-Dame de la Garde on the other side of the Mediterranean, in Marseille.
Its symbolic and religious importance can be summed up by the inscription on the apse: Notre Dame d'Afrique priez pour nous et pour les Musulmans ("Our Lady of Africa, pray for us and for the Muslims").
External links
Categories:- Basilica churches in Africa
- Churches in Algeria
- Buildings and structures in Algiers
- Neo-Byzantine architecture in Algeria
- French Colonial architecture
- Religious buildings completed in 1872
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