Poitiers - Sainte-Radegonde

Radegonde (aka "Radegund", "Radegundis") was a princess, born in Thuringia around 520. She was married to Chlothar I but left her husband and founded the convent "Sainte-Marie-Hors-les-Murs" in Poitiers around 552. The nunnery was the first and became the most important in the Frankish Empire. After having received a fragment of the "True Cross" from the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I, the name of the abbey changed to "Abbaye Sainte-Croix". In 587 Radegonde was buried here. The first church was erected over her tomb.

Radegonde´s remains were exhumed in 1012 for public veneration, what triggered a major pilgrimage to Poitiers. After a major fire, the church was rebuilt. The church of today, constructed from the 11th to 12th centuries, was built in a combination of Romanesque and Gothic styles.

The church got raided by a mob during the Wars of Religion. The sarcophagus got broken open by the vandals - and the holy remains of Sainte Radegonde got burned. Only some bones could be saved - and could later return into the sarcophagus.

The ambulatory crypt is older than the church. It was part of the church that burnt down in 1083. It once had two small stairs, but since the 19th century this wide stairs leads down the pilgrims.