A little history of Notre-Dame cathedral in Dax
And also
The tops
The former cathedral was raised in the 6th century, on the location of saint Vincent's martyrdom, first bishop of Dax. Successively destroyed by Vandals, Normans, Saracens invasions, our cathedral always resisted.
And yet... in 1036, the bishopric seat was translated in Dax: they raised a brand new church, Our-Lady. Altered in the 13th century, it only remains the western porch and a nice gate, a rare piece in Southern France: historians thought the sculptor came from Northern France... Unfortunately, the cathedral collapsed in 1646, because they demolished canons houses, which were leant against the church!
A kind of crutch! So they had to re-raise the current Our-Lady, which looks like Saint-Louis-des-Invalides in Paris... The tradition said that famous architect Vauban drew plans... The inauguration took place in 1719. And for a long time, the façade wasn’t completed! We must wait until 1894 to see the end of the building site...