Saint Peter's Cathedral

Today I decided to investigate the real big castle on the hill.  Turns out it’s not a castle but a church called Saint Peter’s Cathedral.  I found a sign outside that read

“Several cathedrals occupied this site before work began on the present one, around 1160, in the so-called Angevin Gothic or Western style, almost certainly upon the wishes of Eleanor of Aquitaine and Henry Plantagenet.  The cathedral was consecrated two centuries later, around 1379.  The interior is striking on account of its brightness and its vast proportions.  The stained glass window of the Crucifixion illuminating the central nave is renowned for is magnificent colours, its iconography and its venerable age (circa 1170).  The 13th-centry choirstalls are of particular note, as is the Cliquot organ, installed during the Revolution in 1791.” 

On the outside there are three arches.  In each arch is a different scene.   I’m not sure what each of these scenes are but I can guess that the bottom half of the middle one must be hell.  There seems to be demons running around here.  You can click on the pictures to get a bigger view.

Gargoyle played around the entrance too.  I caught a few freaky ones. 

The left picture is a gargoyle sitting on top of a human.  If you look higher up on this photo you’ll see another gargoyle hanging out. 

On the right is of a guy/gargoyle that looks like he’s choking.  It’s a little disturbing.

This is the rose stain glass window.  It is the first thing your eye catches when you see the building.

You could spend all day inspecting the outside of this place.  But I wanted to see what was inside.  When I walked in everything was dark and quite.  There were about 3 men working on repairing some of the statues and walls.  Other than that the place was empty.  I walked over to the front of the church where I found a sign that read:

AMIS VISITEURS

We welcome you to St. Peter’s Cathedral the seat of the archbishop of Poitiers.  There has been a Cathedral on this site for a very long time; it has been enriched by Eleanor of Aquitaine and Henri II Plantagenet, in the 12th Century, and worship to God has been offered there ever since.  It is first and foremost a house of prayer and a place of pilgrimage and witness.  We hope all visitors will enjoy the beauty and the peace of this holy place.

There was also a sign in French that I translated to say ‘Respect the silence’.  So I quietly walked around and took as many pictures as I could.

The architecture here was amazing.

I found a dove surrounded in gold, a consecrated heart (this is very popular tattoo symbol) and a stone phoenix. 

There were many statues of the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus.  But every statue was different.  Each one gave Mary and Jesus a different color hair, eyes and figure.

There was one thing that I really wanted to look at but couldn't seem to get close enough to get a good picture; the stained glass.

There was one thing that I really wanted to look at but couldn't seem to get close enough to get a good picture; the stained glass.  I found a door that one of the maintenance men had left opened that led to spiral staircase behind one of the Marys.  So I went up.  The ceiling was low and the staircase was steep and narrow.  But when I got to the top I was amazed.  You know those stain glass windows are a lot bigger than they look!  I was able to snap one good picture before I heard the workers start to talk.  So I hurried back down the stairs and began taking a few more pictures of this and that.  I had planned to make another trip up before I left but when I went back the door had been shut and locked.  Tomorrow I’ll go to another historical spot.  This one was great!