POITIERS
. The Roman city of Limonum, later Poitiers (Vienne), became the capital of the area
corresponding to the tribal lands of the Pictones, who had been conquered by Rome in the
first century B.C. Early Christians appeared in the city in the 3rd and 4th centuries, and
their first great bishop was St. Hilary (d. 368). A second important early Christian was St.
Radegund, the wife of Clotar I, who founded the monastery of Sainte-Croix after retiring
to Poitiers ca. 550. It was at Moussais near Poitiers in 732 that Charles Martel met and
defeated a Muslim raiding party that was pushing northward into France after having
conquered Spain. The advance of the Muslims into southern France threatened the
Aquitanians, whose duke, Eudes, having been crushed at Bordeaux, appealed to Charles
for aid. The Muslims burned the church of Saint-Hilaire but were decimated by the
Frankish cavalry and were eventually chased by Charles Martel and his army back across
the Pyrénées. Poitiers and much of Aquitaine passed into Frankish hands as a result.
One of the most important historical, religious, and intellectual centers in France,
Poitiers is exceptionally rich
Poitiers (Vienne), Baptistry of Saint-
Jean, east side. Photograph courtesy of
Whitney S.Stoddard.
in monuments, the oldest of which are the hypogeum of Abbot Mellébaude in the
Faubourg Saint-Saturnin (7th c.) and the former baptistery of Saint-Jean, a 7th-century
Merovingian structure on 4th-century foundations (preRomanesque narthex, Romanesque
frescoes). The majority of the city’s extant churches date from the Romanesque period.
The plans of both Saint-Hilaire-le-Grand and Sainte-Radegonde were determined in
part (elevated sanctuary above the crypt, ambulatory, and radiating chapels) by their early
prominence as pilgrimage shrines. The oldest portions of the church of Saint-Hilaire-le-
Grand (dedicated 1049), built over the tomb of the celebrated bishop, are the lower part
of the once isolated bell tower and the transept. The present chevet and eastern-transept
apsidioles followed, the tower was incorporated into the structure, and the width of the
Medieval france: an encyclopedia 1404