Porte d'Aquitaine

Porte d'Aquitaine in Bordeaux went up from 1748 to replace the old medieval Porte Saint-Julien, its arch already rising before anyone knew whose name it would carry. The guide follows how a birth at Versailles named the half-built gate after an infant Bourbon duke, and how the boy's brief life left it honoring a promise that never grew up. It traces the masons and sculptor Francin who finished the arch in pale Saint-Macaire limestone, and the royal arms, sea gods and cornucopias still carved above the square today.