Poitiers is a town in the Center-West of France, capital
(prefecture) of the department of Vienne. Capital of the cultural
and historical region of Poitou and until 2016 of the former
administrative region of Poitou-Charentes, it now constitutes a pole
of dynamic balance in the north of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region.
With more than 29,000 students, Poitiers has been a large
university town since the creation of its University in 1431, having
notably hosted René Descartes, Joachim du Bellay and François
Rabelais. It is the second university hub in the region after its
capital Bordeaux.
Watered by Clain and Boivre, with a
population of 88,291 inhabitants in 2017, Poitiers is the most
populous municipality in Vienne. Its agglomeration had 130,853
inhabitants in 2016 and constitutes the center of an urban area of
261,795 inhabitants. The agglomeration community of Grand Poitiers
had 188,733 inhabitants on January 1, 2014 in its new delimitation
of 2017.
The agglomeration of Poitiers, located halfway
between Paris and Bordeaux, hosts on its territory the Futuroscope
technopole, which has large public (CNED, Canopé ...) and private
companies of national scope, as well as laboratories of cutting-edge
research at European level. With 2 million annual visitors,
Futuroscope is the leading tourist site in Nouvelle-Aquitaine and
the third largest French leisure park in terms of attendance after
Disneyland Paris and Puy du Fou.
City of art and history,
that which is still called "The city of a hundred spiers" or "The
city of a hundred churches", endowed with an old and rich heritage,
Poitiers brings together an important monumental complex unmatched
in the west of France, including in particular the Saint-Jean
baptistery (4th century), the hypogeum of the Dunes (7th century),
Notre-Dame-la-Grande church (12th century), Saint-Porchaire church
(12th century) century) or the Saint-Pierre cathedral (end of the
12th century - beginning of the 13th century). Its historic center
is home to many remarkable buildings, splendid half-timbered houses,
a few mansions - Hôtel Fumé, Hôtel Jean Beaucé - as well as the
former courthouse (12th century), former palace of the Counts of
Poitou, Dukes of Aquitaine , where the Queen of France and England
Eleanor of Aquitaine held court.
Poitiers left its name to three major battles:
the first
battle of Poitiers 507, or battle of Vouillé is the least known. It
was won by Clovis I on Alaric II king of the Visigoths (instead
called Campus Vogladensis) north-west of Poitiers, and allowed the
conquest of the entire area between Loire and Pyrenees;
the
battle of Poitiers in 732 at Moussais, in the town of
Vouneuil-sur-Vienne, north of Poitiers, with the victory of the
Franks led by Charles Martel over the Moorish troops and their
allies;
the battle of 1356, which took place at
Nouaillé-Maupertuis south of Poitiers, with the victory of the
English commanded by the Black Prince against the French under King
John the Good.
antiquity
The city already existed at the
arrival of Caesar, in the form of a Celtic oppidum named Lemonum or
Limonum, a term which would come from the Gallic lemo- or limo-, elm
(cf. old Irish lem, elm), same Indo root -European than the Latin
ulmus which gave elm; Lemonum would mean "the orchard". The city was
redeveloped according to the Roman model in the 1st century AD and
was equipped with a large amphitheater (almost completely destroyed
in 1857), several thermal baths, at least three aqueducts (remains
at the Arcs de Parigny), all giving the city a prominent status. It
is possible that in the 2nd century AD, the city was the capital of
the province of Aquitaine.
In the 4th century, a thick wall
six meters thick and ten high encircled the city for 2.5 kilometers.
This is reduced to the top and east side of the promontory. Despite
the drastic reduction in the area of the city (the amphitheater is
left outside the enclosure, for example), the enclosed area is one
of the largest in the Lower Empire (50 ha), which is probably due to
the topography of the site.
Saint Hilaire evangelizes the
city in the 4th century. The foundations of the Saint-Jean
baptistery date from this period. The city then takes the final name
of Poitiers, in connection with the people of the Pictons.
Middle Ages
In medieval times, Poitiers took advantage of its
defensive site, and its geographical location, far from the center
of Frankish power. Seat of a bishopric since the 4th century, the
city also developed around the Sainte-Croix monastery founded by
Radegonde, queen of the Franks.
The city is the capital of
the county of Poitiers, whose counts, long also titled Duke of
Aquitaine lead an important principality grouping together several
counties and former counties: Poitiers, Limoges, Angoulême,
Périgueux, Saintes, etc. forming the Duchy of Aquitaine. From 927 to
1216, Poitiers was the capital of the Duchy of Aquitaine. The Dukes
of Aquitaine built their castle there and Aliénor d'Aquitaine lived
there regularly.
In the ninth century, the name of Grand-rue
appears in charters. It is the oldest trace of a street name
preserved in Europe. This street corresponds to the line of weakest
slope, and therefore the least tiring, to go up from the ford
(current bridge) Saint-Joubert to the plateau, and it is a route
dating back to the Iron Age. Roughly oriented east-west, it serves
as a decuman axis for the orthogonal grid of streets in Roman times.
It was in the 7th century that Father Mellebaude had the Dunes
hypogeum built.
A first attempt to create a commune took
place, autonomously by the inhabitants in 1138 (perhaps by the
Saint-Hilaire brotherhood), who called on the neighboring towns and
cities to form a league. The town is quickly suppressed by the King
of France. Eleanor of Aquitaine had a new wall built in the 12th
century, 6000 meters long, enclosing the entire promontory. Eleanor
of Aquitaine held his court in Poitiers. His home, the Palace of the
Dukes of Aquitaine, partly became the courthouse of Poitiers during
the French Revolution.
During the revolt of the sons of Henry
II, the city remained loyal to the King of England, which enabled it
to obtain a municipal charter around 1175, on the model of the
Establishments of Rouen. The charter was confirmed by Eleanor of
Aquitaine in 1199, then by the kings of France. Eleanor of Aquitaine
is also doing work at the Palace of the Counts-Dukes and building a
new market. She died in Poitiers in April 1204, and the city was
taken by Philippe Auguste in August of the same year.
The
city welcomes many pilgrims who come to venerate the relics of Saint
Radegonde or Saint Hilaire, some continuing towards
Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle.
In the fourteenth century, the
city fell in prerogative to the third son of John II the Good, the
Duke of Berry (sponsor of the Très Riches Heures of the Duke of
Berry). He embellished the medieval palace of the Counts of
Poitiers, notably by fitting out the keep (known as the Maubergeon
tower). Likewise, it embellishes the ancient triangular castle,
visible in the Très Riches Heures manuscript, in July. In 1385 he
had one of the first belfries built, the “big clock”, which has now
disappeared.
In 1360, following the Treaty of Brétigny, the city, like all of
Poitou, passed into the hands of the English. From September 22 to
25, 1361, John Chandos, lieutenant of King Edward III of England and
constable of Aquitaine, responsible for applying the treaty in the
provinces ceded to England, took possession of the city and its
castle. Mayor Jehan Barré hands him the keys. Jean Chandos gives
them back to him, then he receives the oaths of loyalty to the King
of England from the main personalities of the city. He set up a new
administration of the province, under the authority of Guillaume de
Felynton, English knight, as seneschal of Poitou.
On August
7, 1372, thanks to a few bourgeois infiltrating the city, du
Guesclin had the gates of Poitiers opened and took the city back
from the English by surprise. To consolidate this military conquest,
Charles V by his edict of December 1372 granted the nobility in the
1st degree to the mayors of Poitiers. Poitiers is then the first
city of the kingdom of France where a dignity becomes ennobling.
Mayors were elected for two years. In the first mayors who were
raised to this dignity, it should be noted that Guillaume Taveau was
raised on several occasions between 1388 and 1414. By marrying
Sibille de Saint-Martin, he became baron de Morthemer. This family
is one of the oldest in the county. This barony had an important
role in the history of Poitou. His descendants worked alongside the
kings of France until the Revolution.
During the Hundred
Years War, the city temporarily became the capital of the kingdom of
France and hosted the Royal Parliament in 1418. It was also in
Poitiers that Joan of Arc was examined in 1429 before receiving the
command of the royal host.
Taking advantage of royal favor
and the presence of many exiled Parisian scholars, Poitiers obtained
the creation of a university in 1431. It had 4,000 students at the
end of the 15th century. Among the dozen Universities open in the
equivalent of present-day France, it was sufficiently renowned to
welcome and train brilliant minds such as René Descartes, François
Rabelais, Joachim du Bellay or Pierre de Ronsard.
From the
16th century to the French Revolution
The city dozed off during
the Renaissance. In fact, few changes have taken place in the urban
fabric, apart from the construction of the rue de la Tranchée, and
the construction of bridges which replace the old fords. A few
mansions date from this period: Jean-Baucé, Fumé, Berthelot hotels,
in particular.
The city derives its prosperity mainly from
its administrative functions: royal justice, bishopric, monasteries,
stewardship and the finance office of the generality of Poitiers. It
was also from the stewardship that some changes came at the end of
the 18th century: the Comte de Blossac, steward from 1750 to 1784,
had a French garden built (see green spaces in Poitiers). He also
had the wall of Aliénor d'Aquitaine demolished and boulevards built
on their site.
The Ancien Régime was a period when, despite
very marked class antagonisms, temporary solidarities could be
formed against the common enemy, often the monarchy in the person of
the clerks responsible for collecting taxes. Thus, in 1676, the
butchers, a highly organized profession, revolted against the
assistant clerks. They are supported by the mayor. The Revolution
was preceded in Poitiers by a few moments of questioning of royal
power: the tearing of posters publishing the royal edicts at the end
of the reign of Louis XV with a riot bringing together 1,200 people
in July 1768.
Since the Revolution
In the 19th century,
many barracks were built, making Poitiers a garrison town. The
station was built in the 1850s, in 1899, the city is served by a
tram network comprising three lines whose junction is at Place
d'Armes.
In 1901, a news item became a national affair and
inspired André Gide to write the novel La Séquestrée de Poitiers.
During the Second World War, Poitiers hosted the Belgian
government in exile from May 23 to June 18, 1940. An internment camp
located on the road to Limoges, initially established to accommodate
Spanish refugees, becomes a stopover on the route des death camps
for nearly 2,000 Jews and more than a hundred Gypsies. On June 13,
1944, the American air force bombed the axis of the Clain valley /
station district / Boivre valley. 480 houses or buildings are razed,
more than 2,000 are largely damaged. The number of deaths is unknown
precisely, between several dozen and a hundred.
The city of Poitiers has grown considerably since the 1960s, with
the creation of the ZUP des Couronneries and the Trois-Cités
district, and the creation of major bypass roads (avenue
John-F.-Kennedy then avenue du 11 -November) and penetrating
(André-Malraux route), beyond which developed in the 1970s other
districts (Gibauderie, Beaulieu ...), then a new bypass north-east
of the city (RN147) at the end of the 1980s. The urbanization of the
city continues further east with the ZAC of Saint-Éloi during the
1990s and 2000s.
The city's activity has benefited from
industrial decentralization since the 1970s, notably with the
establishment of a Michelin factory (closed in 2006), the
Schlumberger meter company (industrial and residential meters).
The Futuroscope project (built in the towns near Jaunay-Marigny
and Chasseneuil-du-Poitou), built in 1986-1987 on an idea by René
Monory, enabled the development of the tourist sector in the
agglomeration and opened up the city in the technological and
tourist era. Today, Poitiers can be visited as a complement to the
park, and benefits from an increasingly European clientele,
particularly English with the opening of a direct airline between
Poitiers-Biard airport and London Stansted.
Echoing the
social movements of early 2009, Poitiers saw demonstrations bringing
together 20,000 people on January 29, and 30,000 on March 19. On
October 10 of the same year, an anti-prison demonstration took place
during which some shop windows and street furniture were destroyed
by individuals whom the police and the media identified as belonging
to the ultra-left.
In May 2019, the court moved, leaving the
former Palace of the Dukes of Aquitaine and settling in what was
previously the Lycée des Feuillants located on Boulevard de
Tassigny. The city will then officially become the owner of the
Palace of the Dukes of Aquitaine on January 1, 2020. A third area
thus opens for the Palace, it was the residence of the Duke of
Aquitaine and Counts of Poitou, then the Palace of Justice and now a
dedicated center mainly to culture. It is now intended as the
gateway to the city. However, many years of work will be needed to
finally make it available to the public.