Bordeaux Cathedral: Overall view, apsidal end with buttresses, spires of the north facade

Dedicated to Saint Andrew, seat of the Archbishop of Bordeaux-Bazas. The cathedral was consecrated by Pope Urban II in 1096. Of the original Romanesque edifice, only a wall in the nave remains. The single-aisled nave (width 17.40 m) was rebuilt in the mid-12th century. The Royal Portal, opening into the north side of the sixth bay, is from the early 13th century, while the rest of the construction is mostly from the 14th-15th centuries. The Royal Portal comprises one of the most important ensembles of monumental Gothic sculpture outside northern France and carries a Last Judgment programme. In this church in 1137 the 15 year old Eleanor of Aquitaine married the future Louis VII, a few months before she became Queen. A separate bell tower, the Tour Pey-Berland, is next to the cathedral. Bordeaux was one of the pilgrimage sites on route to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela.