POITIERS (pwa-tya), a town of W. France, formerly capital of Poitou, and now the chief town of the department of Vienne, 61 m. S.S.W. of Tours on the railway to Bordeaux. Pop. (1931), 34,094. Called Limonum at the time of the Roman Conquest, Poitiers afterwards took the name of its Gallic founders, the Pictones 01 Pictavi. Christianity was introduced in the 3rd cen tury, and the first bishop of Poitiers, from 35o to 367, was St. Hilarius. Fifty years later the city had fallen into the hands of the Arian Visigoths, and became one of the principal residences of their kings. Alaric II. was defeated by Clovis at Vouille, not far from Poitiers, in 507, and the town became a part of the Frankish dominion. This was the first occasion on which the peoples of northern and southern Gaul met in conflict near the town which was to see them so often join battle. By his victory in 732 over the Mohammedans at Moussais-la-Bataille in this region, Charles Martel proved the saviour of Christendom. Eleanor of Guienne frequently resided in the city and in 1199 entrusted it with com munal rights. After the battle of Poitiers in 1356 (see below), Poitou was recognized as an English possession by the treaty of Bretigny (1360) ; but by 1373 it was recovered by Bertrand Du Guesclin.
Between the north-west of the plateau central and the Gatine, both heights of old rock, lies the relatively low land called the Seuil du Poitou, giving a historic connection between the Paris basin and the basin of the Garonne. In this lowland streams have dissected valleys in the Jurassic rocks, and Poitiers stands on a promontory above the junction of the Boivre and the Clair (a tributary of the Loire by the Vienne) ; its situation has given it a peculiar importance in military and political history. The town is picturesque; and its streets are interesting for their remains of ancient architecture, especially of the Romanesque period, and the memories of great historical events. Till 1857 Poitiers con tained the ruins of a Roman amphitheatre more extensive than that of Nimes; remains of Roman baths, constructed in the 1st and demolished in the 3rd century, were laid bare in 1877; and in 1879 a burial-place and the tombs of a number of Christian mar tyrs were discovered on the heights to the south-east, the names of some of the Christians being preserved in paintings and in scriptions. Not far from these tombs is a huge dolmen (the "Pierre Levee"), 2 2 ft. long, 16 ft. broad and 6 or 7 ft. high, around which used to be held the great fair of St. Luke.
The cathedral of St. Peter, begun in 1162 by Henry II. of England and Eleanor of Guienne on the ruins of a Roman basil ica, and completed by 1379, is in the Romanesque and Early Gothic styles. It consists of three naves almost equal in height and width, all of which decrease towards the west. The fine win dows of the choir and the transepts preserve their stained glass of the 12th and 13th centuries. The choir stalls (1235-57) are among the oldest in France. The church of St. Jean near the
cathedral is the most ancient Christian monument in the coun try. Built as a baptistery in the first half of the 4th century, it was enlarged in the 7th century, since when it has suffered little structural alteration.
The church of St. Radegonde, a great resort of pilgrims, com memorates the consort of Clotaire (d. 587), and preserves in its crypt the tomb of Radegonde, who founded at Poitiers the abbey of the Holy Cross, and two others reputed to be those of St. Agnes and St. Disciola. The choir and tower above the entrance are of the iith century, while the nave (late 12th century) is in the Angevin style. Notre-Dame la Grande (late i ith century) represents a much older collegiate church and has a richly sculp tured Romanesque facade. The church of Montierneuf (Monas terium Novum) was begun in 1077 by William VI., duke of Aquitaine and count of Poitiers, who is buried within its walls; and the choir (r 8th century modified by the erection of a "lan tern") was solemnly consecrated by Urban II. in 1096. Restora tions have been effected in the 19th century. The beautiful I I th century tower of St. Porchaire was restored in the 19th century.
Poitiers is the seat of a bishop, a prefect, a court of appeal and a court of assizes, and centre of an educational division (academie), and has tribunals of first instance and of commerce, a board of trade arbitrators and a chamber of commerce. It has a university with faculties of law, science and letters, a prepara tory school of medicine and pharmacy and a school of theology. Trade is in farm produce, wine, wool, honey, goose-quills and leather. The industries include the preparation of goose- and swan-skins, printing, and the manufacture of hosiery, brushes, oil, paint and candles.
Counts of Poitiers.—In the time of Charlemagne the count ship of Poitiers, then part of the kingdom of Aquitaine, was repre sented by a certain Abbon. Renoul (Ranulph), created count of Poitiers by Louis the Pious in 839, was the ancestor of a family distinguished in the 9th and loth centuries for its attachment to the Carolingian dynasty. One of his successors, Ebles the Bastard (d. 935), took the title of duke of Aquitaine; and his descendants retained the hereditary name of William. In accordance with the dying wishes of William X. his daughter Eleanor was married in 1137 to Louis, the son of Louis VI. of France. Sole heiress, she brought her husband Poitou, Saintonge, Aunis, a part of Touraine and Berry, Marche, Angoumois, Perigord, Auvergne, Limousin Bordelais, Agenois and Gascony. After a divorce in 1152, Eleanor married the count of Anjou, Henry Plantagenet, who became king of England as Henry II. The west of France thus passed into the hands of England. Philip Augustus reconquered Poitou in 1204. When Charles VII. ascended the throne he united the countship of Poitiers to the Crown.