Bordeaux is a city rich in mascarons, because nearly 3,000 mascarons adorn the façades and fountains of the city.
While antiquity used mascarons to « ward off the evil eye », today they are an ornament. Their inspirations are many: on top of the traditional Neptune and Bacchus, you find fantastical and sometimes legendary animals, female figures, cherubs, carnival masks, animals, and so on.
Bordeaux mascarons also tell the city's History. You find African faces referring to the slave trade, the inclusion of masonic, Jewish, Christian symbols…
These masks, borrowed from Greco-Latin antiquity by Renaissance artists, offer a lively and playful decoration on Bordeaux façades. They help liven up the geometric rigour of the façades by blending into the architectural decor. They are often placed on the keystones of window or door arches, or on the lintels.
So look up and keep your eyes open.
