Poitiers - Ste Radegonde

In Poitiers, on the east side of the town is the little church of Ste-Radegonde, built in the 11th C. on the site of an earlier church (destroyed in 877) containing the tomb of the town's patron saint. The crypt, the choir and part of the west tower date from the 11th C., the nave and west doorway from the 13th- 15th C. The ambulatory has beautiful capitals with human and animal figures. In the crypt is the sarcophagus of Ste Radegonde (d. 587), daughter of the pagan King Berthar of Thuringia and wife of the Frankish King Clotair I. In the north of the old town is the church of Montierneuf (11th C., rebuilt in 17th C.), originally belonging to a Benedictine monastery, which has a fine Renaissance doorway.