Poitiers, France (Part Three).

Text and Illustrations from Wikipedia - the free encyclopaedia,
unless otherwise stated.

The Church of Notre-Dame La Grande,

Poitiers, France.

Photo: 3 October 2007.

Source: Own work.

Author: Gibert Bochenek, Gilbertus

(Wikimedia Commons)

English: The Church of Notre-Dame la Grande, Poitiers, France.

Français: Notre-Dame la Grande, France.

Photo: 25 June 2006.

Source: Own work.

Author: TwoWings.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Poitiers Train Station was built in the 1850s, and connected Poitiers to the rest of France. Poitiers was bombed during World War II, particularly the area around the Railway Station, which was very badly hit on 13 June 1944.

From the Late-1950s until the Late-1960s, when Charles de Gaulle ended the American military presence, the U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force had an array of military installations in France, including a major Army logistics and communications hub in Poitiers, part of what was called the Communication Zone (ComZ), and consisting of a Logistics Headquarters and Communications Agency, located at Aboville Caserne, a Military Compound situated on a hill above the City.

Hundreds of graduates of Poitiers American High School, a school operated by the Department of Defense School System (DODDS), have gone on to successful careers, including the recent Commander-in-Chief of U.S. Special Forces Command, Army General Bryan (Doug) Brown. The Caserne also housed a full support community, with a Theatre, Commissary, recreation facilities and an affiliate Radio Station of the American Forces Network, Europe, headquartered in Frankfurt (now Mannheim, Germany).

Interior of the Church of Notre-Dame la Grande,

Poitiers, France.

Photo: 21 July 2009.

Source: Own work.

Author: PMRMaeyaert.

(Wikimedia Commons)

The town benefited from industrial décentralisation in the 1970s, for instance with the installation during that decade of the Michelin and Compagnie des compteurs Schlumberger factories. The Futuroscope Theme-Park and Research Park project, built in 1986–1987, in nearby Chasseneuil-du-Poitou, after an idea by René Monory, consolidated Poitiers' place as a tourist destination and as a modern University centre, and opened the town to the era of information technology.

The City of Poitiers has a very old tradition as a University centre, starting in the Middle Ages. The University of Poitiers was established in 1431 as the second oldest University in France, and has welcomed many famous philosophers and scientists throughout the ages (notably François Rabelais; René Descartes; Francis Bacon).

Poitiers is twinned with: Northampton, United Kingdom; Marburg, Germany; Lafayette, Louisiana, United States; Coimbra, Portugal; Yaroslavl, Russia; Iaşi, Romania; Azrou, Morocco; Moundou, Chad; Eggelsberg, Austria.

Details of the Frieze on the Exterior

of the Church of Notre-Dame la Grande,

Poitiers, France.

Photo: 21 July 2009.

Source: Own work.

Author: PMRMaeyaert.

(Wikimedia Commons)

The Church of Notre-Dame la Grande,

Poitiers, France.

Photo: 21 July 2009.

Source: Own work.

Author: PMRMaeyaert.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Detail on the Great West Door,

Church of Notre-Dame la Grande,

Poitiers, France.

Image: ROMANES.COM

Français: Église Sainte-Radegonde (Classé).

English: The Church of Saint Radegonde,

Poitiers, France.

Photo: 26 July 2012.

Source: Own work.

Author: Whn64.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Radegund (also spelled Rhadegund, Radegonde, Radigund) (circa 520 A.D. – 587 A.D.) was a 6th-Century Thuringian Princess and Frankish Queen, who founded the Monastery of the Holy Cross at Poitiers. She is the Patron Saint of several Churches in France and England and of Jesus College, Cambridge (whose full name is "The College of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint John the Evangelist and the glorious Virgin, Saint Radegund".

Church of Saint Radegund,

Grayingham, England.

Date: 22 July 2006 (original upload date).

Source: Transferred from en.wikipedia;

transferred to Commons by User:Oxyman using CommonsHelper.

Author: Original uploader was Asterion at en.wikipedia

(Wikimedia Commons)

Saint Radegonde Church,

Poitiers, France.

Photo: 21 July 2005.

Source: Own work.

Author: Sumolari, B25es.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Deutsch: Poitiers: Kathedrale St. Pierre.

English: Poitiers Cathedral (Saint Peter's Cathedral),

Poitiers, France.

Photo: April 1989.

Source: Own work.

Author: Ziegler175.

(Wikimedia Commons)

THIS CONCLUDES THE ARTICLE ON POITIERS, FRANCE.