Poitiers

Poitiers (in Poitevin-saintongeais Poetae ) is a common French, place chief of the department of the Vienna and area Poitou-Charentes. Its inhabitants is called the Poitevins like the inhabitants of the Poitou but also the Pictaves or Pictaviens because the area of Poitiers was populated by the Pictons before the Roman invasion of Gaulle. Currency of the city: Holy, healthy and erudite .

Geography

Situation

The town of Poitiers is located on the Threshold of Poitou, passage relatively low between the Armorican Massif in the west and the Massif Central in the east. It is with a few kilometers (Ligugé) of the " vein granitique" who symbolizes the geographical point of the Threshold of Poitou. It is thus about an easy way of passage between the Paris basin and the Aquitanian Bassin, to 340 km in the south-west of Paris, 180 km of Nantes and with 220 km of Bordeaux. To the favorable site a privileged position is thus added on trade route and military.

Site

The site of Poitiers is a vast headland out of spatula enclosed between the valleys of the Boivre and the Clain, which it dominates of about fifty meters in height. It is also surrounded by powerful cliffs, dug by the rivers. This headland is connected to the plate by a narrow stalk, with the locality the Tranchée . It draws its name from the ditch dug to cut this passage and to thus isolate Poitiers from the surrounding country. The first digging would date from the Oppidum Gallic, and it was maintained until the 18th century. The defensive aspect of the site is thus dominating, but its interest also comes from a vast surface (2,3 km out of 1,3 km, are 250 ha) very easily justifiable, until the invention of artillery at least. These two characters, extended and facilitated defense, made that the site of the city was not moved at the time Roman, as that often arrived (Alésia, Lutèce). This vast space made it possible moreover to make graze the herds with the shelter, then starting from the Moyen-âge, to arrange vegetable gardens and vines. The rivers were crossed on maintained fords, on the sites of current the bridge Joubert and Saint-Cyprien bridge. In the event of seat, they were demolished.

Currently, the town of Poitiers extends on the plate on both sides from the valleys, in particular in direction of the east (university campus, hospital, retail parks and of dwelling) and of North (Technopole of Futuroscope).

History

Antiquity

The city existed already on arrival of César, in the form of a Celtic Oppidum named Lemonum , term which would result from the Gallic “Lemo-” Orme . The city took then the final name of Poitiers, in connection with the people of the Pictons. The Romains arranged it at the 1st century of our era, equipping it with Arène S, several thermal baths, Aqueduc S, the whole giving a statute of foreground to the city. It is probable that at the second century of our era, the city was the capital of the province of Aquitaine. At the end of the 3rd century, a thick wall built with haste girds the city, which is reduced to the top of the headland. Holy Hilaire évangélise the city at the 4th century. The foundations of the baptistry Midsummer's Day go back to this time.

The Middle Ages

At the time medieval, Poitiers benefits from its defensive site, and from its geographical location, far from the center of the frank capacity. Sit of one évêché since the 4th century, the city is also the capital of the county of the Poitou, whose counts direct an important principality gathering Poitou and the Aquitaine.

At the 9th century, the name of Grand-rue appears in the charters. It is the oldest trace of a street name preserved in Europe. This street corresponds to the line of weaker slope, and thus the least tiring, to assemble ford (current bridge) Saint-Joubert to the plate, and it is a route going back to the Âge of Iron. Coarsely directed East-West, it was used as axis decuman with the orthogonal squaring of the streets at the time Roman. It is also in IXe century that the Mellebaude abbot makes build hypogean Dunes.

Aliénor of Aquitaine made build a new wall at the 12th century long of 6.000 meters, enclosing all the headland. It granted a communal charter to the city in 1199. It also did work with the palate of the count-dukes and to build a new market. She dies in Poitiers in April 1204, and the city is taken by Philippe Auguste in August of the same year.

The road of Saint-Jacques-with-Compostelle passing by Poitiers, the city accommodates many pilgrims, who make halt there to venerate the relics of holy Radegonde or saint Hilaire. To the 14th century, the city falls in prerogative with the third wire of Jean II the Good, the duke of Berry (silent partner of the Très rich hours of the duke of Berry ). It embellishes the medieval palate counts of Poitiers, by arranging the keep in particular there (known as turn Maubergeon ). In the same way it embellishes the old triangular, visible castle in the manuscript of the Très rich hours , in July. In 1385 it makes build one of the first Beffrois, the " Large horloge" , disappeared today.

16th century at our days

The city calms down with the Renaissance. In fact, few changes take place in urban fabric at that time, with share the boring of the street of the Trench, and the construction of bridges which replace the old fords. Some private mansions are built with the Renaissance: hotels Jean Baucé , Smoked , Berthelot , in particular.

The poets Joachim of Bellay and Pierre Ronsard sympathize with the Université of Poitiers, before going up to Paris.

The city draws its prosperity primarily from its administrative offices: royal justice, évêché, monasteries, and intendance of the general information of Poitou. It is besides of the intendance that some evolutions come at the end of the 18th century: the Viscount of Blossac, intendant of 1750 with 1784, makes arrange a garden (see Green areas of Poitiers) with the Frenchwoman. It also makes cut down the wall of Aliénor of Aquitaine and arrange boulevards on their site.

At the 19th century, many barracks are built, making of Poitiers a garrison town. The station is built in the Années 1850 and will be bombarded at the time of the Second world war, on June 13rd, 1944.

After the end of the second world war, the city saw victim of the rural migration until the middle of the years 1980. The activity of the city was primarily turned towards industry with Michelin. The project of the Futuroscope definitively left Poitiers the shade in 1987. The idea of Rene Monory propelled the city like one of the tourist centers impossible to circumvent of France and resolutely opened the city at the technological and tourist era.

Today, Poitiers is visited in complement of the park and profits from increasingly European customers notemment English with the opening of a direct air line between Poitiers and London Stansted.

Demography

Economy and transport

Poitiers is the seat of the Chamber of commerce and industry of Vienna. It manages the airport of Poitiers.

Technology S of point and scientific Research (Futuroscope)
Airport of Poitiers-Biard
Station of Poitiers
Line at high speed Poitiers-Limoges

Culture

Poitiers is classified town of art and history.

Religious architecture

The town of Poitiers, still called today the “city with the hundred bell-towers”, counts many churches.

Holy-Radegonde Church of Poitiers, which belonged to the abbey Holy-Cross, the first convent of women founded in Europe by the queen Radegonde, wife of Clotaire I {{er}}, king of the Francs; She comprises a Gothic gate blazing, in opposed to her overall Romance architecture. The chorus of the church is covered with fresco. In the crypt the tomb of the holy-queen is. It is a place of pilgrimage.
Saint-Hilaire Church the Large one; Stage on the Ways of Compostelle since the 12th century, the church Saint-Hilaire the Large one is registered, for this reason, with the World heritage of UNESCO. Built at the 11th century on the vestiges of a necropolis Gallo-Roman, the church of the famous bishop poitevin Hilaire offers a chorus and a transept novels an impressive height and a great luminosity. Remarkable by the balance of volumes, the déambulatoire of Saint-Hilaire opens on four vaults decorated with Romance murals representing one of the first painted scenes of the Apocalypse.

All the vault of the nave and most of the walls of this nave were destroyed at the time of the Revolution. Amputated by half the church became parochial at the beginning of the 19th century, after the legal settlement.

In the beginning the nave, broad, 15 m was covered with a frame. Then one decided to arch it, and, to reduce the width of the range, one threw two lines of supports, which determined the two side corridors which exist before the other side aisles themselves. When one decided, in second half of the 19th century to rebuild the nave destroyed with the Revolution, one thought that the vault had consisted of a file of cupolas. According to the testimony of a traveller, Claude Perrault, the architect of the colonnade of Louvre, in 1669, one knows today that the nave was in the beginning covered in cradle with beams.

To allow the establishment of a street the nave was decreased, in the west, of a span and half.

In this repairing of the church an organ was installed in 1884. It is classified historic building.

Church Notre-Dame Large the, Romance, with the exceptionally rich carved frontage,
Cathedral Saint-Pierre;
Church of Montierneuf.

Military architecture

Vestiges of the wall of Aliénor to the Trench;
Turns of this same wall in the valley of the Boivre (current establishments of the post office);
Turns of the castle of Jean de Berry, with the confluence of the Clain and Boivre.

Civil architecture

Law courts, old palate of the counts of Poitiers, with in particular the Tower Maubergeon, the old keep refitted at the end of the Middle Ages;
many houses with Half-timbering S, in particular street of the Chain, places Notre-Dame market, street of Regratterie, street of Old Butcheries;
Private mansions of middle-class rich person: Hotels Smoked and Berthelot (street of the Chain, shelter current Université of Histoire and Social sciences), of Puygarreau.

Museums

Poitiers counts two museums, they are open the every day and propose an advantageous tariffing making it possible at little cost to visit the two museums and during one one year time. The current director is Mr. Yves Bourel, conservative and old directing of the museum of the Sandelin Hotel to Saint-Omer. Mr. Yves Bourel has in load the reorganization of the museums of Poitiers and the launching of the project Pôle Muséal of the town of Poitiers.

Museum Holy-Cross

It is the largest museum of the city. Built in 1974 in the field of the architect poitevin Jean Monge, the museum Holy-Cross is drawn up in the place of old the abbey Holy-Cross (today in Saint Benoit). It is a vast structure of concrete and glass, in the purest style of the years 1970. The museum, inaccessible to the people with reduced mobility, will know in the next years enough a long period of closing for work in order to recover to the standards from accessibility. The museum Holy-Cross accommodates in permanent exposure the times of the Préhistoire to the Contemporary art, while passing by the medieval period and the Art schools. The museum Holy-Cross with the characteristic to be built on an old site of excavations in its department Archeology, it accommodates major works like the sculptures of Camille Claudel and of Rodin, the vase of Saint-Savin, the head office of Poitiers by Nautré, the Death of Hyacinthe by Jean Broc, etc Until now, of many exposures of national scale were accommodated in the rooms of temporary exhibition of the museum, the building sites of the collections having started, it will not be more the case. That empèche not the existence of expo-files like the exposure " The gold of Venice " who will begin on May 19th, 2007, to be completed on September 5th, 2007.

Museum Rupert de Chièvres

Second museum of the town of Poitiers, the museum Rupert de Chièvres is an old private mansion located in full downtown area, between the prefecture and the town hall. The museum holds its name of François-Marie Rupert de Chièvres, a gentleman of the 19th century which lived there. Shareholder, Rupert de Chièvres constituted a collection of paintings of the Dutch and Flemish schools, but also of furniture and earthenware. The museum covers the unexplored periods by the museum Holy-Cross, of the 16th century at the 18th century. Environment there is that of a house of collector, the museum, in May 2007, left one period of closing for work intended to improve lighting of works, to open an earthenware cabinet (more than 120 parts presented!) and to refit the collections. Thus, the sedan-chair, French billiards and the bed are not presented to the visitors any more, to the great displeasure of the children, but the museum does not lose anything of its charm, on the contrary since, as well quantitatively as qualitatively, the visible collections grew rich.

Cultural establishments

François-Mitterrand Media library.
Space Mendès-France, center of scientific culture, technique and industrial.
Modern Comfort, concert hall, exposure.
national Theater-scene, theater, dance, cinema art and test.
Conservatory national of area.
Museums, to see preceding section

Cultural events

the cinematographic meetings Henri Langlois, festival of short-measuring.
the festival of the spectacle of street Expressive the .
the festival in apartments and other strange places.
the student's Week, organized in spring by the Bitard S.
Greedy Meetings of Poitou demonstration organized by the Brotherhood of Grand' Goule

Education

The town of Poitiers has an old university tradition. The Université of Poitiers was founded in 1431 and accommodated a great number of famous thinkers. Poitiers is currently one of the cities more the coeds of France (with more than 26.600 pupils in higher education), by considering the proportion of students to the total population (very slightly below 14%). It accommodates faculties of sciences, geography, history, languages, schools of engineers: ENSMA (3Ecole Nationale Sup3erieure of mechanics and aerotechnics of Poitiers) and ESIP (University of engineers de Poitiers). In downtown area is the campus of ESCEM (National college of business and of management) as well as the IAE (Institute of Administration of the Companies).

Since 1991, ENSMA and part of the Faculty of Science (the SP2MI) were relocated on the Technopole of Futuroscope. The CESCM (Center of higher learning of medieval civilization) is a pole of reference retrieval in its field, it is lodged in the Berthelot hotel of the 15th century.

Since 2001, the town of Poitiers accommodates the " First Cycle Latin America, Spain and Portugal" Institute of political studies of Paris (Sciences Po Paris).

Green areas

Most famous is the park of Blossac seat of a small zoo. The community of agglomeration of Poitiers carries out an effort of extension of the green areas, in particular along the valleys of the Clain and its affluents. These formerly built grounds are often in floodplain. These new green areas are added to the older public gardens and public gardens.

See Green areas of Poitiers

Gallery

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Pierre Vertadier was Secretary of State.

Twinnings

Blasonnement

Malta-Brown, in illustrated France , volume V (1884), brings back two blasonnements:

Of money, with the lion of mouths, the sand edge, charged with 12 gold besants, with the chief of azure, charged with three flowers of gold lily.

Of gold, with the climbing sand lion, the edge of very, charged with 12 gold besants, with the chief of azure, sown flowers of gold lily.

- The three flower of gold lily replace (or overload) the three besants of the chief when the city is attached to the kingdom of France. It preserves them under English domination. -

The Grand Larousse encyclopedic in 10 volumes brings back the first of these blasonnements, stated differently:

Of money to the lion of mouths, the edge of sand besantée of gold; with the chief of azure charged with three flowers of gold lily. - It is the blazon currently used by the municipality of Poitiers.

See too

edict of Poitiers (1577) during the wars of religion
Diane of Poitiers

External bonds

Official site of the town of Poitiers
Site of the agglomeration of Poitiers
Site of the University of Poitiers
Site of the Tourist office
Poitiers on the site of the national geographical Institute
Poitiers on the site of INSEE
the CHU of Poitiers

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