The Temple of St. John (or Baptistère St. Jean)—concierge to be found at Atelier St. Jean-Baptiste, No. 7, Boulevard du Pont-Neuf—is perhaps the oldest Christian building in France, and is one of the chief relics of Roman Poitiers, having been built between A.D. 320 and 330. It is constructed of brick and stone, has straight-sided arches in the south end (the building is oblong, and faces north and south), and altogether an exceedingly Roman appearance. There is a low twelfth-century tower, and the interior is enriched with paintings of the same period. An interesting collection of Early Christian tombs found near the Pierre Levée, outside the town, is now kept inside the building.
Pierre Levée is the name given to a recumbent monolith resting on three supporting stones, which tilt up one end, two others having disappeared since the seventeenth century. It is a short distance beyond the Pont-Neuf, in the suburb called St. Saturnin, east of the River Clain, and although the stone bears a Gaulish inscription, it is not easy to give its age.
The Palais de Justice includes the ancient palace of the Dukes of Aquitaine and the Counts of Poitiers. The splendid hall, now the Salle des Pas-Perdus, has Romanesque and Gothic walls, with a similar wooden ceiling to that in the Palais de Justice at Rouen. The end wall, the work of Jean de Berry (died 1416), has three fireplaces with chimneys outside blocking the windows, which are filled with coloured glass. The keep, called the Tour Marbergeon, was built in the fifteenth century by Jean de Berry, and has four towers, ornamented with statues of the Counts of Poitiers.
The Château on the north side of the town was military, and not feudal. Its remains are of the twelfth and fourteenth centuries, with two round towers.
At the lofty southern corner of the town, now occupied by the Parc de Blossac, there are remains of the ramparts.
The remains of the Roman amphitheatre were demolished in 1857, but fragments of a Roman aqueduct, called Les Arcs de Parigné, still stand a little to the south of the town.
No. 8. POITIERS TO ANGOULÊME.
THE ROAD TO ANGOULÊME
Leaving Poitiers by the Route de Bordeaux, one soon reaches Vivonne, a village on the Clain, where the road goes twice to the right and then to the left, across the little River Vonne. The church passed on the left belongs to the twelfth century, and has a fine Gothic west door, with much weather-worn carving.