Dear readers, here is the Porte Cailhau: it stands on the Place du Palais, on the side of the river. Located between the two mouths of the two main rivers of Bordeaux, the Peugue (cours d'Alsace-et-Lorraine) and the Devèze (rue de la Devise), it was for a long time the main entrance to the city from the port. Suffice to say that it is important in the Bordeaux landscape, yes! It gives access to the Palais de l'Ombrière, residence of the Dukes of Guyenne, then seat of the Parliament of Bordeaux from 1462.
Say, tell me the story of The Cailhau Gate
Grab your pens, we have some information you might be interested in. First, many people wondered about the origin of its name: for some historians, it recalls the name of a powerful bourgeois family from Bordeaux, the Cailhau, established near the Palais de l'Ombrière, not far from the door. This family also gave several mayors to the city in the XNUMXth and XNUMXth centuries. Another hypothesis: Cailhau would refer to the word “pebble” (cailhau in Gascon), name given to the gently sloping quay paved with river pebbles: simple, efficient and logical!
You can go to the line, because it is a second historical data which awaits you: the Porte Cailhau, it is a defensive door opened in the fortifications of the XIVth century. Between 1493 and 1496, the jurats decided to rebuild it in order to give a monumental entrance to the city. By chance, at the same time, King Charles VIII, during the first Italian campaigns, won the Battle of Fornoue, during which the Archbishop of Bordeaux, André d'Espinay, led a Bordeaux contingent. You follow ? The door therefore becomes a commemorative monument, symbolizing the attachment of the people of Bordeaux to the kingdom of France.
Ladies and gentlemen, approach and admire, while we explain to you. The door, equipped with a portcullis, loopholes and machicolations, recalls the defensive character of the doors of the Middle Ages. If these names send you back to your college years, that's normal, and a little revision doesn't hurt! The arrow slits give on the river side, but also on the side of the city. Note, on the city side, the trace of the old rampart: within it, a door which allowed access to the walkway. As for the elegant turrets of its roof, its mullioned windows surmounted by braces, its niches with flamboyant canopies, its carved decoration representing the arms of France or the statues of the king and the archbishop of Bordeaux, they are flamboyant testimonies of a legacy of the Renaissance style.
The white marble statue of the king shows him holding globe and scepter: a very clear demonstration of omnipotence for everyone, isn't it? The statue of the king will be broken by the Revolutionaries in 1793 but fortunately replaced by a stone copy in 1880.
This beautiful monument is dear to us. For this reason, in the XNUMXth century, the Marquis de Tourny decided to keep it when he demolished the ramparts and the old medieval gates to build the facade of the quays. Thank you Marquis, what a good idea to keep it!
In 1864, three tenants, a shoemaker, a salt weigher and a public scribe settled in the gate. They will remain there until 1882.
Illumination and renovation of the Place du Palais in 2010 enhanced the value of the monument. From the top of this building, the visitor has an unobstructed view of Bordeaux's first bridge, the stone bridge… Magic !
The Cailhau Gate
Bordeaux
Classified Historic Monument
To see and do, near Porte Cailhau
The customs museum
On the same quay as Porte Cailhau, Place de la Bourse with its fountain and reflecting pool is certainly one of the most “Instragrammed” buildings in Bordeaux. One of its wings houses the National Customs Museum, classified as a Historic Monument. It is the whole history of this administration over the centuries which
is told with a host of various objects resulting from seizures. Here we oscillate between the cabinet of curiosities and the palace of contraband objects.
