Cathédrale Saint-Pierre de Poitiers et le vitrail d'Henri II et d'Aliénor

Poitiers

The foundations were laid shortly after the middle of the 12th century, under the bishop and the chapter of Saint-Pierre, and no doubt with the money of the duke and duchess: it was at Poitiers, in the cathedral, that Eleanor had married Henry Plantagenet on 18 May 1152, and it was to the sculptors of the site that the old queen entrusted, around 1200, her recumbent effigies for Fontevraud. The design is that of Angevin Gothic, also called Plantagenet: three vessels of almost equal height, domed vaults on a square plan, a bright, wide hall church. The work lasted so long that the façade, completed in the taste of the North, was not consecrated until 1379. The treasure of the building is at the chevet: a Crucifixion window of more than eight metres, one of the oldest and largest in the West, where Christ on the cross has below him the crucifixion of Saint Peter, head downwards, and above him the Ascension. In the lower register, tiny, two crowned donors kneel, surrounded by four boys: Henry II, Eleanor and their sons, one of the rare portraits of the couple made in their lifetime, together with the painting in the chapel of Sainte-Radegonde at Chinon. The choir stalls, installed under Bishop Jean de Melun between 1235 and 1257, count among the oldest in France; the great organ of François-Henri Clicquot, commissioned in 1787 and installed in 1791, is one of the most famous in the country.

Wikipédia — Cathédrale Saint-Pierre de Poitiers ↗

Getting there : Rue de la Cathédrale, in the upper town; Notre-Dame and Hôtel-de-Ville car parks a few minutes' walk away. The church is open every day and entry is free. The Crucifixion window is the central bay of the chevet, above the high altar: you must go forward to the crossing to read it, and come preferably in the morning, when the sun is behind it (advice to be checked on site). The 13th-century stalls are in the choir, the Clicquot organ in the gallery on the inside of the façade. Allow half an hour.

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound