Église Sainte-Radegonde de Poitiers

Poitiers

A queen of the Franks turned nun, Radegund founded in the 6th century this church outside the walls of Poitiers, where she was buried in 587; from then on the building took her name. Miracles reported at her tomb drew pilgrims at once, and the sanctuary has remained one of the most visited in Poitou: Hippolyte Taine, in the 19th century, put the figure at 300,000 visitors a year to the shrine. Her biographer Baudonivia relates that a year before her death Radegund had a vision of Christ telling her: "You are a precious pearl, and know well that you are one of the finest diamonds in my crown." Tradition adds that Christ, as he withdrew, left the print of his foot in the stone: this is the Pas de Dieu, still venerated beneath the Gothic tomb recess, surmounted by a 17th-century terracotta group from a workshop of Le Mans, in which the kneeling saint prays before the standing Christ. The crypt houses the grey-black marble sepulchre, exhumed in 1012 by the abbess Béliarde, opened in 1412, then desecrated in 1562 during the Wars of Religion: it now holds only a few charred bones in a lead casket. The church itself, burnt in 1083 and rededicated in 1099, combines a Romanesque east end with a 13th-century Gothic nave. Interrupted by the Revolution, the pilgrimages were re-established in the 19th century and continue to this day.

Église Sainte-Radegonde de Poitiers — Wikipédia ↗

Getting there : In the historic centre of Poitiers, at the foot of the slope running down to the Clain, a few hundred metres east of the cathedral of Saint-Pierre and the baptistery of Saint-Jean; pedestrian area, free admission. The crypt and the saint's tomb are reached by a staircase from the choir; the Pas de Dieu is beneath the sculpted group of the tomb recess, in the nave. Coordinates taken at the level of the building, in a dense urban fabric.

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

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