The Ritual Master Hello friends, and welcome to the 15th day of Advent. We’re heading back to Poitiers today, to visit two exceptional cathedrals connected to Aliénor of Aquitaine. The child in me is fascinated with this small, insignificant thing : since Aliénor was born 900 years ago, what were the things she would have known then, that I can still find today ? The vase at the Louvre was one thing, the Conciergerie in Paris as well, and in her city of splendour, her beloved Poitiers, besides the Palace of the Dukes of Aquitaine, there are two churches who heard her footsteps 9 centuries ago.
Notre-Dame la Grande is a Roman Catholic church mentioned in Poitiers since the 10th century, and officially rebuilt in the form we see today in 1086. The west front adorned with statuary is recognised as a masterpiece of Romanesque religious art. With a silhouette typical of the local Poitevin Romanesque style, the façade is much higher than the building itself. It is structured with superimposed arches and framed by two turrets, with an abundance of sculpture representing frequent motifs of Romanesque art : foliage, bestiary, modillions sculpted with grimacing heads and fantastic figures. Above the portal, a frieze contains biblical scenes, from Adam and Eve, to the old prophets and even a Nativity scene (if you can spot it). I visited the church on two occasions, and every time I found myself in front of it, the emotions were surprising. I have admired gothic churches, and the resplendent byzantine monasteries of my home country, yet in front of this rare Romanesque edifice, the beauty was somehow overwhelming.
The interior has suffered more alterations than the façade, with polychrome painting dating from a XIXth century restoration with new motifs, inspired by what was considered to be a byzantine influence on romanesque art, as an effect of the crusades. Although highly critiqued at the time, historians agree that seeing the church with a polychrome painting today, even if the motifs are not original, is much closer to the reality of the medieval period, than having bare walls of grey stone. This church would have been up and standing much in the same shape as we see it today, during all of Aliénor’s life.
If this was a legacy of her ancestors, Aliénor wanted to leave her own mark on the city as well. And so, around the year 1162, the foundations of the current cathedral were laid, under the patronage of King Henry II and of his Queen, Aliénor of Aquitaine. Welcome to the largest medieval monument in the city of Poitiers, the Saint Peter Cathedral.
This is the best known example of a hall church of the Angevin Gothic style.
The facade, which is broad relative to its height, has two unfinished side-towers, begun in the 13th century. Most of the windows of the choir and the transepts preserve their stained glass of the 12th and 13th centuries; the end window, the Crucifixion Window contains the figures of Henry II and Eleanor, one of three visual representations of Aliénor made during her lifetime, together with her official seal and her tomb effigy. The history of such an old cathedral tells stories of restorations, modifications and overlapping styles. However, it is a rare example of a regional architectural style of the XIIth century, and a precious conservatory for invaluable stained glass windows of the High Middle Ages. A piece of our history.
Until tomorrow, happy Advent !
