The Notre-Dame de la Victoire church was built at the end of the 19th century, when Mayor Félix Martin undertook to “transform” Saint-Raphaël, not without success.
The growth of the city was such that the old church of San Rafeu could hardly accommodate the new citizens. Abbot Bernard, parish priest from 1882 to 1890, then entrusted the construction of a new place of worship to the architect Pierre Aublé, fellow student of Félix Martin. Of Lyonnaise origin, and a great lover of the Byzantine - Moorish style, Pierre Aublé imagined the basilica of Saint-Raphaël according to this inspiration. There is also a very characteristic dome of this type of building, largely inspired by that of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul.
The façade also features a representation of the Archangel Raphael, symbol of the town. Built for the most part with pink sandstone from the Esterel, it occupies a total area of 850 m² for a height of 35 m.
The Church of Our Lady was inaugurated in 1887, and named in homage to a famous maritime battle where Christian forces routed the Ottoman fleet on October 5, 1571. The Vatican raised it to the dignity of Basilica in 2004, the second in the diocese of Fréjus-Toulon with that of Saint-Maximin.
