Eglise St-Hilaire, Poitiers

Église St-Hilaire, Poitiers

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The large Abbey Church of St-Hilaire (Bishop of Poitiers c350) has the tallest apse structure of the Poitiers' churches, which gives it a much more elegant and dimensionally balanced appearance than some of its thick pillared more vertically challenged siblings. It also has some interesting soft coloured and delicate frescos and a few carved capitals. Don't hold your breath about the architectural attractiveness (not) of the much restructured nave, the result of a tower collapse, church shrinking, and a west end rebuild.

The church is built into the side of a hill, so the apse inside is twice the height it appears from the outside.

Single headed eagle decoration on an inner window arch of the apse. The nasty King Richard of England presented a copy of the double headed eagle seal of his mother Alienor d'Aquitaine to the canons of Notre Dame la Grande in 1168. This bird looks very similar, except there is no second head, which probably means in heraldic terms it is not similar at all! Other "eagle brands" were the Swabian Kings (Frederick II used a double headed eagle) other Holy Roman Emperors, and an early King of Navarre (Sancho III, reigned 1000 - 1035). Who knows ?! There is also a bas relief of a double headed eagle in a facade column of St-Nicholas, Civray.

There is a widespread generic story across Europe of the saint who cut his expensive cloak in two and gave half to a pilgrim / beggar - one such saint was one of the Martins and that looks like his name on the wall here. The brother relief below is on the facade of the church of the huge monastery of St-Martin Pinario opposite the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela.

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