Like St. Andrew's Cathedral, St. Michael's Basilica has its own separate bell tower, and here it's affectionately called "the spire." We take you to discover it, follow us.
Say, tell me the story of Saint Michael's Basilica
Flamboyant Gothic style, it was erected at the end of the 1472th century by the architects Jean Lebas and his son, from Saintes, between 1492 and 1768. And it's that our spire is a real symbol of resistance, you'll see. Struck several times by lightning, for lack of a lightning rod, the spire of the campanile was swept away by a hurricane in September 99, which reduced its height to 1843 meters, giving it a truncated appearance. Several restoration projects for the building were proposed, but did not come to fruition. In the meantime, the bell tower serves as a base for a telegraph. Victor Hugo, passing through Bordeaux in XNUMX, gives us a striking description of the mutilated bell tower:
“The tower, although crowned with a block with eight sides and a high gable, is rough and truncated at its summit. We feel that she is decapitated and dead. The wind and the day pass through its long warheads, without fenestrations and without mullions as through great bones. It is no longer a steeple; it is the skeleton of a steeple”.
The reconstruction of the spire finally began in 1860, when Paul Abadie (1812-1884), architect of the Sacré-Coeur de Montmartre in Paris and of the Sainte-Marie de la Bastide church in Bordeaux, began the long reconstruction work which were completed in 1869. Paul Abadie doubles the six fragile faces of the tower with a thick wall. The six buttresses are extended and crowned by the figures of the six churchmen who marked the history of Saint-Michel or Bordeaux (Saints Delphin and Paulin, Popes Clement V and Paul II, Archbishops Pey Berland and Arnaud IV de Canteloup) .
Culminating at 114m in height, the spire offers a unique panorama of Bordeaux , its river and the surrounding area. 235 steps lead to the terrace with a bird's eye view of the very lively district of Saint-Michel. The spire is particularly striking and magical in the evening when it is illuminated. Its carillon of 22 bells, restored, strikes the hours and quarters of an hour. Don't miss to listen to his ritornellos!
Finally, the base of the bell tower retains a crypt which served for a long time as an ossuary, then as a place of exhibition for the “mummies” exhumed in the XNUMXth century, during the development of Place Maynard, the former parish cemetery. But our Notebook of Secrets will allow you to read this incredible part of history.
Saint Michael's Basilica
Bordeaux
Classified as a historic monument, the Basilica of Saint-Michel is on the UNESCO World Heritage List as part of the Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France.
To see, to do, near the Saint-Michel basilica
The capuchin market
In the pedestrian extension of the Saint-Michel Basilica, here is a place of life and food which smells of the air and local expressions of the Gironde. Open every day, it’s a bit like “the belly of Bordeaux” which
happily borders the hall. It is known under the name “Capus Market”, which comes from the Capuchin monks, instigators of a first weekly livestock market in the middle of the XNUMXth century.
