Poitiers

Poitiers, the capital of the French department of Vienne, occupies the summit and slopes of a little eminence, round whose base flow the Clain and the Boivre, 61 miles SSW. of Tours. Before the revolution it had an immense number of religious edifices, which even yet are sufficiently numerous. The most interesting are the little Temple de St Jean, originally a baptistery of the 6th or 7th century; the abbey church of St Radegonde, with the saint's cenotaph, much visited by pilgrims; and the noble cathedral of St Pierre (1161-15th century), in which, or in the older edifice that occupied its site, twenty-three councils were held—the first in the 4th, and the last in the 15th century. Other edifices are the Palais-de-Justice (the palace formerly of the Counts of Poitou) and the Hôtel-de-Ville (1876). A university, founded by Charles VII. in 1431, is now represented by a school of law, with faculties also of science and literature. There are besides a public library of 30,000 volumes and 400 MSS., a museum, and several learned societies, including one for studying the antiquities of western France (1834). Pop. (1872) 28,247; (1891) 34,374. Poitiers, the Limonum of the Romans, derives its present name (earlier Poietiers) from the Pictavi or Pictones. In and around it are numerous Celtic and Roman remains, a dolmen, baths, some fragments of a huge amphitheatre, &c.; and here in 1882 the remains of a whole Gallo-Roman town were discovered, with temple, baths, and streets, spread over 14 acres. In the vicinity Alaric II., the Visigoth, was defeated and slain by Clovis in 507; and somewhere between Poitiers and Tours Charles Martel won his great victory in 732 over the Saracens under Abd-ur-Rahmân. Later still (on 19th September 1356), at a spot 5 miles north of Poitiers, Edward the Black Prince, with some 12,000 or 14,000 Englishmen and Gascons, defeated 60,000 of the troops of King John of France, killing 11,000 and taking more than 2000 prisoners, among these the monarch himself and one of his sons. St Hilary (q.v.) was the first bishop of Poitiers, which long was capital of the province of Poitou. From this town the ancient family took its name to which Diana of Poitiers (q.v.) belonged.