"Bordeaux Cathedral"

In the 11th and 12th centuries, the Romanesque Saint André gradually gained influence and became the leading church of Aquitaine. In 1137 the 13-year-old Eleanor of Aquitaine married the future Louis VII of France, in the cathedral. A few months later, the King's father died, and Eleanor became the Queen of France. She later divorced and in 1152 she married Henry II, and became Queen of England, and mother of King Richard the Lionheart and King John of England. 

The Romanesque church had been begun sometime before 1170, atop masonry from the earlier Carolingian church. It nave seems to have had three rectangular traverses, and an asymmetric transept, with a plan of adding several cupolas. However, at the beginning of the 13th century it was decided to continue building the cathedral following the new Gothic style that had appeared at the end of the 12th century in the Ile-de-France. The old sanctuary was gradually demolished. Of the Romanesque church, only a wall in the nave remains.

The transformation from Romanesque to the French Gothic architecture took place during a long period when Aquitaine and Bordeaux were under the control of the English. It was assisted by the support of the archbishop of Bordeaux, Bertrand de Goth, who from 1305 until 1314 reigned over the Catholic church as Pope Clement IV, and directed numerous donations and concessions to the new cathedral.

The choir of the new cathedral was still under construction in 1320, when Bertrand Deschamps became the master builder. Construction of the nave was greatly delayed by the outbreak of the Hundred Years' War in 1337 between England and the Valois kings of the Kingdom of France. The plan of the nave was reduced in scale from three aisles to a single aisle. Work continued principally on the decor. The construction of the bell tower, separate from the main building, began in 1440, but was not finished until 1500. Following an earthquake in 1427 that caused the collapse of parts of the city ramparts, flying buttresses were added to the outside of the nave under master builder Imbert Boachon.

In the 16th century, Renaissance decorative elements were added to the Gothic structure.

A long series of renovations and reconstructions began in 1803 and continued throughout the century. The most ambitious reconstructions were carried out by Paul Abadie, best known as the architect of the Basilica of Sacré-Cœur in Paris. Restoration and reconstruction continued throughout the 20th century.