Medieval Anjou & Poitou - Gothic & Romanesque architecture of Western France

The ancient counties of Anjou and Poitou boast the richest and most diverse collection of twelfth-century monuments in France. They also occupy a position of great importance for the fabric of later medieval Europe. 

Earlier, this region had been a pioneer in the development of feudalism, one of the effects of which was the growth of lay control over abbeys and collegiate churches. A consequence of this was that long established buildings were restored and new foundations established, and the region became a crucible of innovation in sculptural and architectural style. The frame of the western French church was subject to a series of changes of form and identity that were among the most dramatic of twelfth-century Europe. 

This development of mature twelfth- and thirteenth-century solutions forms the core of the expedition. The extravagantly carved screen façades of Poitou and the Saintonge will be something of a feature, and that late twelfth-century predilection for aisleless or hall church designs, domed-up rib-vaulting and polychromed surfaces will be given corresponding prominence. Nor will painting be neglected, on both glass and plaster, for the high spaces of St-Savin-sur-Gartempe and Asnières-sur-Vègre preserve two of the most beguiling and complex cycles of frescoes from Romanesque Europe, while the east windows of Poitiers cathedral frame some of its greatest late twelfth-century glass.

And though that rich vein of Carolingian and early Romanesque building has been largely superseded, a vein that marked out the Loire Valley as one of the great stamping grounds of early medieval architectural thinking, enough remains to gain a sense of the range and monumental achievements of eleventh-century design in the region.