Cathédrale Saint-André de Bordeaux, l'église du mariage d'Aliénor

Bordeaux

Pope Urban II, who was travelling through France to preach the crusade, consecrated this cathedral on 1 May 1096. It was in this Romanesque church, of which only the bases of the nave can still be seen, that Archbishop Geoffroy de Loroux married, on 25 July 1137, the feast of Saint James, Eleanor, duchess of Aquitaine since the death of her father three months earlier, and Louis, son of King Louis VI: Suger, who accompanied the prince, notes that he "crowned the young lady with the royal diadem" on the occasion of the wedding. A week later, Louis VI died and the couple were king and queen of France. Fifteen years on, Beaugency annulled the marriage, and Aquitaine passed with its duchess to the Plantagenets: Bordeaux remained English until 1453. It was here too that Eleanor, returning from Castile with her granddaughter Blanche, spent Easter 1200, and that her captain Mercadier was murdered on 10 April. The building was remade in Gothic from the 13th to the 15th century, largely thanks to Archbishop Bertrand de Got, who became pope under the name of Clement V; the single nave, without aisles, is eighteen metres wide at the transept. A second royal wedding was celebrated there, that of Louis XIII and Anne of Austria, in November 1615. The cloister was destroyed in 1844; the cathedral has been listed since 1862.

Wikipédia — Cathédrale Saint-André de Bordeaux ↗

Getting there : Place Pey-Berland, in the very centre of Bordeaux; the "Hôtel de Ville" tram stop (lines A and B, to be checked) is in front of the portal. The cathedral is open every day, outside services, and entry is free; the nave of 1137 can be read in the lower parts of the walls, the rest is Gothic. The Tour Pey-Berland, a separate 15th-century bell tower, is visited separately and gives the view over the city. Allow half an hour for the church, an hour with the tower.

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound