Poitiers
Getty Images/Robert Harding World Imagery
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Overview
History-steeped Poitiers was founded by the Pictones, a Gaulish tribe, and rose to prominence as the former capital of Poitou. A pivotal turning point came in AD 732, when somewhere near Poitiers (the exact site is not known) the cavalry of Charles Martel defeated the Muslim forces of Abd ar-Rahman, governor of Córdoba, thus ending Muslim attempts to conquer France. Until the Revolution, this sublimely beautiful city was known as the 'town of 100 bell towers'; the remarkable Romanesque churches that remain today are in part a legacy of Eleanor of Aquitaine's financial support.
Attractions
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Poitiers
The celebrated western façade of this Romanesque church was exquisitely sculpted in soft gold stone between 1115 and 1130. Spot the temptation of Adam and…
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Poitiers
Today it houses the law courts, but nearly a thousand years ago this stunning building was the seat of the Counts of Poitou and Dukes of Aquitaine. Its…
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Poitiers
The 1970s Brutalist architecture of this art museum, built from reinforced concrete, is a shock after the elegance of its ancient episcopal neighbours…
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Poitiers
The town's grand Gothic cathedral safeguards beautiful 13th-century oak-carved choir stalls, an 18th-century organ with more than 3000 pipes and…
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Poitiers
Constructed in the 4th and 5th centuries on Roman foundations, this ginger-stone baptistery formed part of the episcopal ensemble with the cathedral, 100m…
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Poitiers
Consecrated in 1049, used as a warehouse during the Revolution and partly rebuilt in the 19th century, this grandiose Romanesque church appears on Unesco…
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