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Bordeaux

Architecture sights in Bordeaux

  1. A

    Basilique Saint-Seurin

    Austere and imposing, the Basilique Saint-Seurin is an architectural treasure, classed by Unesco as a World Heritage Site. The basilica's style is predominantly Romanesque, but many Gothic elements pertain - the result of successive additions to the structure over the centuries. Its history goes back as far as the beginning of Christendom in the 6th century.

    On the western façade of the building, superb columns form two archways allowing access to the nave, whose beautiful Romanesque capitals date from the 12th-century. The southern portal recounts the Last Judgement, while, inside the basilica, the massive pillars in the nave have a striking countenance. To the left of…

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  2. B

    Cathédrale Saint-André

    Lording it over Bordeaux is Cathédrale St-André. A Unesco World Heritage Site, the cathedral's oldest section dates from 1096; most of what you see today was built in the 13th and 14th centuries. Exceptional masonry carvings can be seen in the north portal.

    Even more imposing than the cathedral itself is the 50m gargoyled, gothic belfry, Tour Pey-Berland. Erected between 1440 and 1466, its spire was added in the 19th century, and in 1863 it was topped off with the statue of Notre Dame of Aquitaine (Our Lady of Aquitaine). Scaling the tower's 232 steep, narrow steps rewards you with an unfolding panorama of the city.

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