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 a convent in Poitiers around 552. The nunnery was the first and became the most important in the Frankish Empire. Radegonde was buried here in 587. 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 tomb of Sainte Radegonde is still placed in the crypt of the church.

The apse with ambulatory and radiating chapels were probably built first. There were not only pilgrims who headed to Sainte Radegonde´s tomb, this was as well a major halt for all the pilgrims following the Via Turonensis on their way to Santiago.