Bordeaux Cathedral

Bordeaux Cathedral; Cathédrale Saint-André
	The north front of the cathedral
Religion
Affiliation	Roman Catholic Church
District	Archdiocese of Bordeaux
Rite	Roman
Ecclesiastical or organizational status	Cathedral
Location
Location	Bordeaux, France
Geographic coordinates	44°50′16″N 0°34′39″W
Architecture
Type	Church
Style	Gothic, Romanesque
Materials
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Official name	Part of Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France
Criteria	Cultural: (ii), (iv), (vi)
Reference	868
Inscription	1998 (22nd session)

Bordeaux Cathedral (French: Cathédrale Saint-André de Bordeaux) is a Roman Catholic church dedicated to Saint Andrew and located in Bordeaux, France. It is the seat of the Archbishop of Bordeaux.

In 1998, UNESCO designated the Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France as a World Heritage site, including the three main churches of Bordeaux : the basilica of St. Severinus, the basilica of St Michael and the St. Andrew's cathedral.

History

The cathedral was consecrated by Pope Urban II in 1096. Of the original Romanesque edifice, only a wall in the nave remains. The Royal Gate is from the early 13th century, while the rest of the construction is mostly from the 14th-15th centuries. The building is a national monument of France.

Two royal weddings were celebrated in this church. In 1137 the 13-year-old Eleanor of Aquitaine married the future Louis VII, a few months before she became Queen. And in 1615, the Infanta of Spain Anne of Austria married the king of France and Navarre Louis XIII.

Description

A separate bell tower, the Tour Pey-Berland, stands next to the cathedral.

The site is served by line A and line B of the tramway de Bordeaux at Station Hôtel de Ville.

Architectural Style

Bordeaux Cathedral is built in the Gothic Style, it has an eastern facing choir with large stain glass windows for letting in morning light, it also has flying buttresses and ribbed vaults that were both decorative and for providing structural support which allowed structural weight to be better distributed going outward instead of downward allowing for thinner, taller, and stronger walls and for more windows letting in more light which was of religious significance at the time of building. The doors of Bordeaux Cathedral have decorated tympanum with depictions of didactic religious scenes and gargoyles and other decorative sculpture throughout as well as tall, thin spires typical of gothic style.

Marcadé collection

The cathedral is home to the Marcadé collection, which consists of a group of forty-two illuminations, among other objects (paintings, sculptures, liturgical vestments and silver objects). It was given to Bordeaux Cathedral by Canon Marcadé in 1947. Of note, these illuminations, little studied so far, will be exhibited starting in 2015 in the cathedral, in a room specially designed for this collection. [1]

Gallery

The exterior

View from the bell tower
North front, main entrance
South entrance.
Door of Arrows (Portail des Flèches)
Royal portal (Portail royal)
North rose window
Gargoyles

The interior

The nave
Interior view with huge pipe organ
Choir
The Grand Organ
St Augustine, St Blaise and St Macarius

The Pey Berland Tower

Pey-Berland tower
Top of the tower (southeast view)

Citations

Article incorporates text licensed under the CC-by license from Heritage Science as cited

Mounier, Aurélie; et al. (October 24, 2014). "Hyperspectral imaging, spectrofluorimetry, FORS and XRF for the non-invasive study of medieval miniatures materials". Heritage Science. Springer. 2 (24). doi:10.1186/s40494-014-0024-z.

References

•Bony, Jean (1983). French Gothic Architecture of the Twefth and Thirteenth Centuries. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-02831-7.

•Frankl, Paul; Crossley, Paul (2000). Gothic Architecture. Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-08798 5.

•Reynolds, Elizabeth (Aislin) (2013). "The Development of Stained Glass in Gothic Cathedrals". JCCC Honors Journal. 4 (1): 3.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.

[1] Mounier, Aurélie; et al. (October 24, 2014). "Hyperspectral imaging, spectrofluorimetry, FORS and XRF for the non-invasive study of medieval miniatures materials". Heritage Science. Springer. 2 (24). doi:10.1186/s40494-014-0024-z.