Basilica of Notre Dame of Fourvière
Byzantine-Romanesque hilltop church of marble and mosaic, its facade carved over decades by hand.
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About this audio guide
This guide to the Basilica of Notre Dame of Fourviere in Lyon follows Giuseppe Belloni, a Swiss stonecutter who arrived from Ticino in 1921 to carve the facade's frieze of Lyonese saints and the judgment of Solomon on the Justice Tower. It traces the basilica's own unfinished history, from architect Pierre Bossan's Byzantine vision after a trip to Sicily to the citizens who funded it following the Franco-Prussian war, and the generations of architects who inherited the project after Bossan's death. Look closely at the facade's carved faces as you listen, each one passed through Belloni's hands.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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