Overview

The design of the Eglise Notre Dame was the work of Pierre Duplessy, who was the king's architect as well as Bordeaux's great urbanist. Because of the proximity of another convent, the Dominicans (in the early days of the religious establishment) began to open the edifice to the east, in the opposite direction of the usual orientation of churches. In 1700, the king authorized the construction of the vaulting, limiting the thickness to 16 centimeter (six inches) in order that canons could not be mounted to threaten the Chateau Trompette. The organ, added in 1785, is the church's crown jewel.