Poitiers

Sister cities

• Lafayette
• Iași
• Coimbra
• Marburg
• Yaroslavl
• Moundou
• Northampton

History

Poitiers was founded by the Celtic tribe of the Pictones and was known as the Oppidum Lemonum before Roman influence. The name is said to have come from the Celtic word for elm, Lemo. After the Roman conquest the town became known as Pictavium, or later "Pictavis", after the original Pictones inhabitants themselves. The city houses a series a of archeological finds from the Roman-era. Until 1857, Poitiers hosted the ruins of a vast Roman Amphitheatre, which was larger than the Amphitheater of Nîmes. Furthermore, Roman baths built in the 1st century and demolished in the 3rd century, were uncovered near the amphitheater in 1877. The first decisive victory of a Western European Christian army over a Islamic power, the Battle of Tours, was fought by Charles Martel's troops in the vicinity of Poitiers on 10 October 732. Eleanor of Aquitaine frequently resided in the town, which she embellished and fortified, and, in 1199, entrusted with communal rights. Poitiers was bombed during World War II, particularly the area around the railway station which was heavily 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 ("Military Brats") of Poitiers American High School, a school operated by the Department of Defense School System (DODDS), have gone on to maintain successful careers, including the recent commander-in-chief of the…

Geography

The city of Poitiers is situated on the Seuil du Poitou, a shallow gap between the Armorican and the Central Massif. The Seuil du Poitou connects the Aquitaine Basin to the South to the Paris Basin to the North. This area is an important geographic crossroads in France and Western Europe. Poitiers's primary site sits on a vast promontory between the valleys of the Boivre and the Clain. The old town occupies the slopes and the summit of a plateau that rises above the streams which surround, and hence benefits from a very strong tactical situation. This was an especially important factor before and throughout the Middle Ages.

Most-observed species

• Marsh Gentian

  Gentiana pneumonanthe L. · Magnoliopsida
  5,840
• Great Tit

  Parus major Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  1,963
• Eurasian Blackbird

  Turdus merula Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  1,863
• European Robin

  Erithacus rubecula (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  1,704
• Common Wood-Pigeon

  Columba palumbus Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  1,538
• Eurasian Blue Tit

  Cyanistes caeruleus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  1,520
• House Sparrow

  Passer domesticus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  1,475
• Common Chaffinch

  Fringilla coelebs Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  1,419

Most recent

• M 4.8 — 2023-06-16
  5 km WNW of Mauzé-sur-le-Mignon, France
• M 4 — 2019-06-21
  2 km WSW of Vihiers, France
• M 4.1 — 2018-02-12
  3 km SSE of La Meilleraie-Tillay, France
• M 4.2 — 2016-05-02
  6 km SE of L'Île-Bouchard, France
• M 4 — 2010-07-25
  5 km ENE of Saint-Maurice-la-Clouère, France
• M 4.2 — 2010-06-30
  1 km ENE of Fontenay-le-Comte, France