In the Futuroscope you can fly, fall and even leave the solar system without getting out of your chair, thanks to the digital technology that takes you into the fourth dimension where science and simulations come together to give you a taste of the f..

This typical Poitevin-style Romanesque church has a 12C façade with lively sculpted decorations on the theme of the Incarnation. On summer evenings the special lighting recreates the façade’s medieval colours. The fifteen-minute polychrome spectacle ..

This rich museum, occupying a building on the site of the old Abbey of Sainte-Croix, contains three sections. The regional archaeology collection has pieces from the Paleolithic to the Middle Ages. Artistic and historical views of Poitiers are illust..

This large Romanesque church, built in 1049, is a place of pilgrimage, and is considered by some to be the most interesting in Poitiers. Outside, observe the chevet, the chapels grafted onto the transept and the ambulatory. Inside, the choir and tr..

Begun at the end of the 12C and nearly finished in the late 14C, when it was consecrated, theCathédrale de St-Pierre is astonishing in size. The tympan sculptures on the three doorways are delightful, and the architectural power of the interior spe..

This baptistry, built in the mid-4C, is the oldest example of Christian architecture in France. Apart from the baptisal room with its octagonal pool, you will see some moving romanesque frescos that take on greater significance in the summer, when, t..

The church has a Romanesque apse and belltower-porch connected to an Angevin Gothic nave. The belltower-porch has a flamboyant doorway.

A façade decorated with flamboyant skylights, a harmonious courtyard with staircase tower, gallery (supported by cabled columns) and a great corbelled balcony. Several university departments are housed here.

The church of the moutier neuf belonged to a Cluniac abbey. The sanctuary dates back to the 11C but was rebuilt during the Gothic and classical periods. The lower Romanesque part of the church contrasts with the upper Gothic part, supported by flyi..

This multimedia library was designed by Sylvain Giacomazzi, Laurent and Hervé Beaudoin in a style drawn from Le Corbusier, and has succeeded in fitting right in with the historical legacy of Poitiers. The architects used the interplay of light on eac..

The law courts date back to the Restoration, but the façade does not prepare you for the Grande salle , a rare example of urban architecture in the Middle Ages. And it is truly remarkable - three monumental fireplaces and beautiful statues represent..

This former town hall dating back to the 15C housed the Grandes Écoles of the university and then the aldermen (it was a municipal tribunal under the Ancien Régime).

All that remains of the original 11C church is the porch and belfry. Three floors of blind arcades and bays rise above an arched entry decorated with Romanesque capitals.

The museum contains 16th-18C pieces: furniture, tapestries (Felletin and Flandres), ceramics, Limoges enamels, wooden statuettes and paintings. The museum is named after the private mansion in which it stands, which belonged to Rupert de Chièvres.

This is quite an original building - its lantern topped with a cupola on the right and, in the centre, the staircase tower with its oblique openings – very unusual for the Renaissance. In the left corner, notice the little adjoining bays that made it..

This building houses exhibitions on scientific, technical and industrial subjects. During the summer, the planetarium has a show devoted to the town itself.

Lovely view over the rooftops of Poitiers and their round tiles (houses) and slate (public buildings). Below is the Coligny rock, which the admiral of the same name chose as an observation point during the siege of the town in 1569. The statue extend..

This is one of the strangest monuments of the Middle Ages: an underground chapel built in the middle of an early Christian cemetery. Discovered in 1878, it was surrounded by a kiosk in a Gallo-Roman style in 1903.

This broken dolmen was already a destination for excursions in the days of Rabelais.