[citation needed] Fourvière is dedicated to the Virgin Mary, to whom is attributed the salvation of the city of Lyon from the bubonic plague that swept Europe in 1643.

Speculating on the reasons for the construction of such an elaborate and expensive building, one author makes the statement that: "The reaction to the communes of Paris and Lyon were triumphalist monuments, the Sacré-Coeur of Montmartre and the basilica of Fourvière, dominating both cities.

[2] The design of the basilica, by Pierre Bossan, draws from both Romanesque and Byzantine architecture, two non-Gothic models that were unusual choices at the time.

The chapel and parts of the building have been rebuilt at different times over the centuries, the most recent major works being in 1852 when the former steeple was replaced by a tower surmounted by a golden statue of the Virgin Mary sculpted by Joseph-Hugues Fabisch (1812–1886).

[7] On September 30, 1821 André Coindre and ten others made private vows in the chapel there, thus founding the Fratres a Sacratissimo Corde Iesu (Brothers of the Sacred Heart), a Roman Catholic religious community primarily devoted to educating youth.

[8] On 21 January 1851, Peter Julian Eymard prayed at the Shrine of Our Lady of Fourvière and was inspired to found the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament.

[9] When the city of Lyon was spared in the Franco-Prussian War (1870), the community committed to build the present Basilica alongside the ancient chapel.