Poitiers, France
1906

Poitiers, a town of France, capital of the department of Vienna and formerly of the province of Poitou, on a penin sulaformed by the junction of the Clain and the Boivre, 60 miles SSW. of Tours. It has steep and tortuous streets. Of the numerous ecclesiastical edifices the principal are the twelfth-century Romanesque-Gothic cathedral ; the Temple Saint-Jean, a baptistery dating from Merovingian times ; the Romanesque church of Notre Dame la Grande, dating from the eleventh century, with a splendidly sculptured facade ; and the church of Sainte Radegonde, erected in the eleventh century on the site of an ancient edifice and containing the sarcophagus of the saint. The most interesting secular buildings are the modern Renaissance Hotel de Ville, containing a museum of art and a natural-history museum, and the Palais de Justice. The town possesses a university and a library of 65,000 volumes. The industries comprise brewing and the manufacture of hosiery, cloth, etc Poitiers was anciently the capital of the Gallic tribe of the Pictones, whence its name. It was an early focus of Christianity. Its first bishop was Saint Hilary in the fourth century. Between Poitiers and Tours Charles Martel over whelmed the Saracens in 732, and here in 1356 the English under the Black Prince vanquished the French king John the Good. Pop. in 1901, 31,785 (commune, 39,886).

Lippincott's New Gazetteer: A Complete Pronouncing Gazetteer Or Geographical Dictionary of the World, Containing the Most Recent and Authentic Information Respecting the Countries, Cities, Towns ... in Every Portion of the Globe Publisher J.B. Lippincott Company, 1906

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