Religious heritage
The first Bishop’s seat in the region dates back to the year 314, in the city of Bordeaux. While most of the religious architecture in Aquitaine is of Christian inspiration, there are also traces of more distant influences. There are, for example, details of sarcophagi found in Bordeaux that have been attributed to Syrian artists.
Famous as the pilgrimage to Compostella might be, there is much more to the religious heritage of Aquitaine than that. Many abbeys were founded away from the pilgrims’ routes, such as the Augustinian Monastery and the Monolithic Church in Saint Emilion, the latter being quite unique in Europe in terms of its size.
And there are treasures well worth seeing in every corner of the region: the wooden roof structure of the Church of Monein, with its sound and light shows; the Church of Sainte Engrâce, for its view across the Pyrenean valley of Le Saison; the Church of Le Moulleau, on the Bay of Arcachon, for its South-American tower; the painted churches in Casseneuil and Pujols in the Lot-et-Garonne… And what can we say about the Church of Saint-Jean-de-Luz where a door was knocked through the wall specially for the entrance of King Louis XIV and his future wife Maria-Theresa of Spain!
Finally, we should not forget that Aquitaine also played its role in the Papal City of Avignon. Our region saw the birth of two future Popes! First Clement V – born Bertrand de Got in Villandraut – elected in Rome in 1305 and buried in Uzeste in 1314. And his immediate successor Jean XXII, born in Cahors at a time when the town was part of Aquitaine.
