The old city sits on the hill while the valley below is now filled with office blocks (and railway lines).

Poitiers - a town on a rock.

A name that resounds through French history.

In the light of current recent history it hardly seems politically correct to mention that of three major Battles of Poitiers the most important was that of AD 732 when Moors and Saracens - who had already conquered Spain - were pushing onwards into Gaul. After sacking Poitiers they were confronted by the collected armies of two Frankish regional leaders at Moussais-la-Bataille just south of Châtellerault. The Moslem army was defeated and began what was to become their eventual total withdrawal from Christian France.

Subsequently Poitiers fell under English domination following the Black Prince's victory at Nouaillé-Maupertuis in 1356 (see our Area 'Civray and South Vienne). In the Wars of Religion at the end of the 16th century what had become one of the principal centres of learning in the country was decimated and the city remained in decline until its fortunes began to revive with the arrival of the railway in the 1850's.

Goods and pavement cafes fill the central pedestrianised streets.

Defended from all but the automobile.

The old part of the city - which includes both its monuments and the current administrative offices of the Region and the Département - is built on a promontory between the two rivers Clain and Boivre. Inhabited since prehistoric times - and with only a narrow neck in the south east between the two waters - it was a good defensible situation but, despite the strategic wisdom of centuries the succeeding generations of it's guardians could not have foreseen the possibility of a concerted assault by motor car.

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Centuries of clerics and learning.

Nevertheless they have been assuaged with extensive underground and multi-storey car parks and it is generally not too much of a problem to find spaces other than at peak periods. The university here was famous in the 15th Century when it housed 4000 clerics served by some 60 churches. Education remains a major part of the economy and of the churches that remain one in particular is outstanding.

Modern tourists study ancient saints.

A masterpiece of ancient sculpture.

Notre-Dame-la Grande stands on one side of the market square (the Tourist Office is nearby) and its magnificently carved west front is an astonishing testimony to 12th century technology. The location, fittingly, is near the middle of the plateau to which the city centre is confined. The geological constraints have been instrumental in creating a compact and vibrant place. Notre Dame and the Palais de Justice are at the heart. They are surrounded by the pedestrianised shopping streets which themselves are ringed by public buildings - the Town Hall, the Prefecture, the Post Office, the Chamber of Commerce and the University - to mention but a few.