About this place
The Cathédrale Saint-André is the grandest church in south western France and the spiritual heart of Bordeaux. A place of worship has stood on this site since at least the ninth century, and Pope Urban II consecrated a church here in 1096, on the eve of the First Crusade. The soaring building you see today was largely raised in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, a masterpiece of French Gothic with flying buttresses, pointed arches, and the beautifully carved Royal Gate. In 1137 the young heiress Eleanor of Aquitaine married the future King Louis the Seventh here, a union that bound Bordeaux's wine lands first to France and later, through her second marriage, to England for three centuries. Today the cathedral is protected as part of the UNESCO listed pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostela.
Key facts
- 1096 year — Pope Urban II consecrated a church on this ancient site
- 1137 year — Eleanor of Aquitaine married the future King Louis the Seventh here
- 13 years old — Eleanor's age when she wed inside this cathedral
📍 Place Pey Berland, 33000, Bordeaux