POITIERS, a town in France, capital of the department of Vienne, is situated on a rocky hill on the left bank of the Clain, a feeder of the Vienne, in 46° 34' 55" N. lat., 0° 20' 31" E. long., at an elevation of 387 feet above the sea, 211 miles by railway S.S.W. from Paris, through Orldans and Tours, and had 25,318 inhabitants iu the commune in 1851. It is one of the oldest towns in France, and occupies the site of Lemonum, the chief town of the Pictones, which is mentioned by Julies Cesar (' Bell. Gall.' iii. II; vii. 75; viii. 26), and which after wards took the name of Pictonee, or Pictavi, whence the present names Poitiers for the town and l'oitou for the province are said to be derived. Upon the downfal of the Roman empire, the town was pillaged by the Vandals, A.D. 410; it subsequently came into the hands of the Visigoths, from whom it was taken by the Franks. The neighbourhood of Poitiers has been the field of three of the greatest and most decisive battles ever fought in France—the defeat of the Visigoths uudcr Alaric A.D. 507 by Clovis and his Frauks at Vottilid, a village a few miles west of the town; the defeat of the Saracens under Abd-elltahman, under the walls of Poitiersby the Franks, commanded by Charles Martel A.D. 732; and the victory of the Black Prince at the head of 8000 English and Gascon soldiers in 1356, over an army of 50,000 French troops under Jean IL, who was taken in the action. By the marriage of Eleanor of Guienne to Henry Plantagenet Poitiers came into the hands of the English kings, who held it till 1204, when it was wrested from them by Philippe Auguste. By the treaty of Bretigny in 1360 it was ceded to England, but it reverted to France in 1372, by the voluntary surrender of the townsmen to Charles V. For 14 years, while the English were masters of the greatest part of France, Charles VII. kept his court and parliament in Poitiers, and great additions were then made to the extent of the town. During the religious wars it was taken from the Huguenots by the Catholics, and was the scene of great cruelties ; Admiral Coligny made an unsuccessful attempt to retake it in 1569.
Poitiers is inclosed by old turreted walls pierced by six gates, four of which open on bridges over the Clain. The space within the walls comprises large gardens and orchards, so that the extent of the place is much greater than the population would lead one to suppose. The streets are mostly narrow and steep ; a few of them have been widened and modernised of late years ; the leading thoroughfares are well paved and famished with sidepatha for foot passengers. On the whole it is an irregular ill-built place, with houses mostly old, lum bering, and inconvenient, squares small and mean ; yet its position on a hill-slope above the winding river, and its public buildings, remarkable for their antiquity, give Poitiers a picturesque and inter esting appearance. The most remarkable structure is the cathedral of St-Pierre, which was commenced by the English Henry II., in
1152, but not finished till 1379. The western front, which is flanked by two low but graceful towers, presents three magnificent portals of greet depth and richly decorated, the central one being surmounted by a handsome rose window. The interior, consisting of choir, nave, and aisles, is 323 feet long, 99 feet wide, and 96 feet high; in the choir are 70 stalls of carved woodwork, which date from the 13th century. The other remarkable churches are—the church of Sainte-Radegonde, with a crypt and nave, which date from the 12th century ; the church of Moutierneuf, which belonged to a Benedictine abbey and was fluished in 1096; the church of Notre-Dame, a Byzantine structure, which, dating partly from the 9th, partly from the 11th century, is the admiration of archaeologists for its magnificent portal, and the delicacy and multiplicity of its sculptured ornaments; the church of SL-Porchaire; what remains of the ancient basilica of St.-Hilaire erected in the beginning of the 11th century; and near tho cathedral the church of St-Jean, a venerable monument of the 5th century, which now serves for a museum of antiquities. In the centre of the town stands a large building called Le-Palais, formerly the residence of kings and of the hereditary comas of Poitou, but now used as a town-hall and chambers for the courts of justice. The house occupied by Diane do Poitiers still stands at the corner of the streets SL-Paul and Du-Coq. Besides the collection of antiquities, Poitiers has a public library of 25,000 volumes, a cabinet of natural history, a ixitanical garden, and a departmental nursery. Of Roman structures there are still remaining some arches of an aqueduct to the south of the town, and within the walls the ruins of a vast amphitheatre, which is called lea .Areuee.
Poitiers gives title to a bishop, whose see is formed by the depart menta of Deux-Savres and Vienne; it is the scat of a High Court, which has jurisdiction over the departments of Charente-Iufifrieure, 1)isinx-S6'ros, Venil4e, and Vienne. It has a University-Academy, which embraces within its limits the departments just mentioned and those of Charente, Indre, Indre-et-Loire, and Haute-Vienne. Con nected with the University-Academy, there are in the town a faculty of law, a secondary school of medicine, and a national college. The other institutions of the town are tribunals of first instance and of commerce, a consultative ohamber of manufactures, a free architeo tural and drawing school, and several literary, scientific, artistic, and agricultural societies.
The chief manufactures are coarse woollen-cloth, blankets, hosiery, lace, playing-cards, vinegar, leather, and dressed skins. The trade in these articles and in seeds, wheat, wine, hemp, flax, wax, honey, hides, and dressed goose-skins, with the down on for furriers, is considerable.
(bidioanairc de la France ; Annuaire peer 1 A n 1554.)