Medieval Bordeaux: posted by David

Last week our class went on a field trip to a walled part of Bordeaux, the city where I've been living this past month. 

One of the original gates, among the city buildings

In the city we saw a few of important kinds of walls and gates. Of the two gates that we saw, I liked the second the best. Both were impressive. The first was called the Cailhau gate. It was built in 1495 and was reserved for war. There were spots where people would drop stones at the enemy, windows where there were little vents where archers could shoot their arrows through. There were places where there were corridors to inside the wall. The door to enter the city was 6 feet thick. 

Porte Cailhau

The second gate had a bell to warn civilians that war was coming and a copper clock that told the date the time, and the month. The clock is called the Grosse Cloche. 

Grosse cloche

There used to be twelve gates. Now only a few of the twelve remain.