church of Saint-André was first mentioned in Bordeaux in documents dating from 814, in the Carolingian period. This church was probably part of group of churches, including the Basilica of Saint Severinus of Bordeaux and Notre-Dame-de-la-Place, located in the old castrum or Roman fortified town. It appears more officially in 1096 in a document from the chancellery of Duke William IX of Aquitaine. In that year it was formally consecrated by Pope Urban II.[1]

In the 11th and 12th centuries, the Romanesque church was engaged in long competition with its neighbouring church, Saint Sevrinus of Bordeaux, to attract pilgrims taking part in the Pilgrimage to Saint-Jacques de Compostelle. Saint Severinus had what Bordeaux Cathedral did not, the remains of the companions of Saint Jacques, as well as the oliphant or hunting horn of Roland, a relic placed there by Charlemagne. However, Saint André gradually gained influence and became the leading church of Aquitaine. Until this time it was under the jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Bourges Cathedral, but under Pope Clement IV Saint-André began reporting directly to Rome. It also took jurisdiction over churches in Agen, Périgueux, Angoulême and Saintes.[1]

In 1137 the 13-year-old Eleanor of Aquitaine married the future Louis VII of France, in the cathedral. A few months later, the King's father died, and Eleanor became the Queen of France. She later divorced and in 1152 she married Henry II, and became Queen of England, and mother of King Richard the Lionheart and King John of England.

The Romanesque church had been begun sometime before 1170, atop masonry from the earlier Carolingian church. It nave seems to have had three rectangular traverses, and an asymmetric transept, with a plan of adding several cupolas, similar to the church of St. Maurice in Angers. However, at the beginning of the 13th century it was decided to continue building the cathedral following the new Gothic style that had appeared at the end of the 12th century in the Ile-de-France. The old sanctuary was gradually demolished. Of the Romanesque church, only a wall in the nave remains.