Church of Notre-Dame la Grande, Poitiers

The ancient vestiges of a brick and rectangular stone construction can be located near the gutter on the northern wall of the current church.

The whole of the building was rebuilt in the second half of the 11th century, in the period of High Romanesque, and inaugurated in 1086 by the future Pope Urban II.

Outside, the aisles were covered with a terrace punt[clarification needed], the roof being reserved for the nave: thus there was the effect of a basilica on two levels.

The plan does not have transepts, for good reasons: buildings were in the north, and the principal street passes to the south.

Located at the site of the crossing, it presents a square base, then over it a circular level of a roof decorated with tiles.

This type of roof, frequent in the south-west, was often copied by the architects of the 19th century, in particular Paul Abadie in Angoulême, Périgueux and Bordeaux.

Three arches supported by columns duplicated with capitals with foliage were re-installed in the court of the university opposite, as was a pillar on the corner.

Of Flamboyant Gothic style, they belonged to the middle-class families of the city, who had been merchants since the end of the Middle Ages.

Historians of art think that this painting served as a model for the sculptures on the facade, the attitudes and the composition being identical.

He had the columns and the vaults repainted with "Romano-byzantine" motifs, departing from a principle current among the restorers of the 19th century, that of the influence of the Crusades on Romanesque art.

The carvings of the capitals are sober, using stylised foliage called "feuilles grasses" (thick leaves).

Only one capital is historiated: situated in the deambulatory on the south side, it shows the Ascension with Christ standing in a mandorla.

Adam, Eve and Nebuchadnezzar II: above the door, a panel of high reliefs can be seen: this illustrates passages from the Bible.

The selected scenes, taken from both Testaments, tell the Annunciation and the Incarnation of God on earth in the person of Jesus Christ to save humanity.

From left to right may be seen the original sin, Nabuchodonosor King of Babylon, the prophets Daniel, Moses, Isaiah and Jeremiah.

Below Joseph, two men are represented fighting (according to a recent study (cf bibliography) this is Jacob wrestling with the Angel).

The historians of art prefer not see the figures as portraits but as representations of bishops as heirs to the apostles, therefore represented on the same level.

Finally the Second Advent is represented above: Christ is shown standing upright in a mandorla, surrounded by Cherubim and the Sun and the Moon.

One distinguishes work from at least two different workshops of sculpture: one with a taste for movement and folds in clothing, visible in the Annunciation for example, and the other with a more static style, in flat tints (cf.

In the 17th century, the acts of merchant salters whose workshops stood against the front, caused some deterioration of the calcareous stone by the effects of salt.