Bazas

Bazas occupies a fortified height above the Gascon countryside. Its cathedral of Saint John the Baptist faces a broad arcaded square, a reminder of the town's importance as a bishop's seat and market. The Wars of Religion struck Bazas hard: Protestants took it on Christmas night in 1561, and it changed hands repeatedly. Bishop Arnaud de Pontac paid a ransom to save the cathedral's three great portals from destruction, though much of the building was ruined.