Bordeaux - Saint-Seurin

Saint-Seurin was originally built outside the city walls close to an ancient necropolis. The Abbey of St. Seurin bears the name of the venerated fourth bishop of Bordeaux. A first building, confirmed towards mid 5th century, got destroyed by the Normans in the 8th century. It was reconstructed above the crypt of St. Seurin from the 11th to 13th centuries.

The church underwent many modifications and got a new facade during the 19th century. Behind this facade parts of the Romanesque portal got saved. In and around this portal are many graffiti. Some may be carved in by pilgrims in medieval times ("arrows"), some may date to the Revolution or the early 19th century, when the building was unattended. Here "Jacques" left his signature.

Bordeaux was one of the major halts on the Via Turonensis. The grave of Saint-Seurin was an important place for the many pilgrims. Another precious relic, shown here, was the ivory horn of Roland, who died at Roncevaux and whose (legendary) burial place most pilgrims will have seen in Blaye. Tradition claims that the horn "olifant", still reported in the 17th century and lost before the French Revolution, had been left by the Charlemagne on the altar of St. Seurin.