A secteur sauvegardé since 1967, and 385 historic monuments

Hôtel des DouanesClasséMaison dite Maison FrugèsClasséÉglise Saint-MichelClasséAncienne Ecole de médecine et de chirurgie, puis annexe de la bourse du travailClasséAncien Hôtel de l'Octroi, dit Hôtel de RagueneauClassé+222See all photos

Photos from Wikimedia Commons, copied to our own server, each credited to its photographer with its license; names open the monument’s page.

A site patrimonial remarquable protects a whole area rather than one building: inside it, building work follows the area’s own plan and needs the agreement of the architecte des Bâtiments de France. A PSMV (plan de sauvegarde et de mise en valeur) is the strictest plan: it covers every building, inside as well as out.

The list gives no boundaries, so the map can’t show the area.

Classé is the higher protection: any work on the building needs the State’s permission. Work on an inscrit building must be declared to the State in advance. Around both, building work in sight of the monument (usually within 500 m) needs the agreement of the architecte des Bâtiments de France.

Points as the ministry gives them: a monument spread over several plots has one point. 25 monuments have no point on the map.

232 more, named only by their kind

232 more are named in the list only by their kind: 165 buildings (immeubles), 63 houses (maisons), 1 town house (hôtel) and 3 others, most from the 18th century. The 231 with an address are listed by it in the full list on POP.

See all 385 on the map

Search the full list on POP

First protected, in 1840: Église Saint-Seurin, Église Sainte-Croix and Restes de l'amphithéâtre dit Palais Gallien. That was France’s first list of monuments historiques, drawn up in Prosper Mérimée’s time as inspector. 123 were protected in 1951 alone. 27 have been added since 2011.

23% of its main homes were built before 1919; the median compared French town has 7.4%. More of them were finished before 1919 than in any other period (23%).

INSEE, census 2023: main homes (résidences principales) only; second homes and empty homes aren’t dated.

Everyone born in Bordeaux Birthplaces from Wikidata, checked against Wikipedia.

The record in Bordeaux starts with Église Saint-Rémi, which dates from Antiquity. All told, the list holds 385 historic monuments, 73 of them classé, including Cathédrale Saint-André. Its old center has been a secteur sauvegardé since 1967. For its size, it has more historic monuments than 92% of compared French towns.

Cathédrale Saint-André and other monuments here are part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site. No town its size has more historic monuments: it leads the 41 nearest in population. Its housing is old: 23% of homes date from before 1919, against 7.4% in the median compared French town.