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The dome of the Notre-Dame basilica towering above the ramparts of the upper town.

The basilica, built on the site of a former cathedral (destroyed after the Revolution) and designed by Monsignor Haffreingue, an amateur architect of genius, was completed in 1866.
It stands as a landmark for the whole city.

Every year a procession is held in honour of Our Lady.
According to legend, an unmanned ship with a statue of the Virgin had sailed into the harbour in 633 or 636.

That was the beginnig of a pilgrimage famous throughout the Middle Ages and even mentioned in Chaucer's Prologue to the Canterbury Tales (line 465).

The present basilica still contains a Romanesque crypt with painted pillars,where Edward II of England married Isabelle of France in 1303.