Dijeaux gate

You can now see the Dijeaux Gate, which leads to Gambetta Square, where the dreaded guillotine was once installed. If you take a look around, you’ll see the kilometre zero marker, from which all distances from Bordeaux were calculated. The Dijeaux Gate, which you can admire today, is part of a long line of gates. Bordeaux being a fortified city, it inevitably needed gates to get through its ramparts , otherwise you’d be stuck. As the city grew over the centuries, so did the ramparts, each expansion requiring new gates. At the time of the first Roman wall in the 4th century, the Dijeaux gate was already there, under the name of Porta Jovia, Jupiter’s Gate. According to historian Camille Jullian, it was a simple opening onto a long Roman road that led to the temple of Jupiter, hence its name. With the creation of new ramparts in the 14th century, the gate shifted slightly to join the new city walls, where you are standing today. The gate became a defensive gate and helped the town to withstand a 12-day siege during the Fronde of 1650. In 1746, as part of a campaign to embellish the town, Gambetta Square was laid out. At the time, Gambetta had not yet been born, so the square was called Dauphine square, which in itself doesn’t change much. Anyway, the gate was demolished to make a prettier one and just like its predecessors, it marks the end of a long street leading from the Royal Square to the river. That’s all it took for the Dijeaux Gate to look the way it does today and for you to be able to admire it. It was listed as a historic monument in 1921, and is now part of the city’s landmarks.