Portal:Architecture/Selected article/2007-13
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The Palace of Poitiers in Poitiers (French: Palais de justice de Poitiers) began as the seat of the Counts of Poitou and Dukes of Aquitaine in the tenth century through twelfth centuries. The former Merovingian kingdom of Aquitaine was re-established by Charlemagne for his son Louis the Pious. A palace was constructed for him in the ninth century above a Roman wall datable to the late third century, at the highest location of the town. Louis stayed there many times as a king and then returned to the palace after becoming emperor, in 839 and 840. After the disintegration of the Carolingian realm, the palace became the seat of the Counts of Poitiers. The first palace of Poitiers was completely destroyed by a fire in 1018.
The palace was completely rebuilt, straddling the wall, by the Counts-Dukes of Aquitaine, then at the pinnacle of their power. In 1104, Count William IX added the dungeon on the town side. It is known as the tour Maubergeon, after his mistress Amauberge ("the Dangerous"), wife of Vicomte Aimery de Chatellerault and grandmother of Alienor of Aquitaine. The rectangular keep is reinforced with four smaller square towers projecting from each corner; it was greatly damaged when the southern portion of the palace was set ablaze by Henry of Grosmont in 1346.
Between 1191 and 1204, Alienor fitted up a dining hall (50 metres in length, 17 metres in width), perhaps the largest in contemporary Europe. The hall had not retained its ceiling; it has been covered by chestnut woodwork, constructed in 1862 by a team of marine carpenters from La Rochelle. The walls of the hall are daubed and painted so as to imitate stone facing. Their monotony is relieved by cusped arches resting on slender columns. A stone bench rings the walls of the hall. In the later palace of justice, the medieval dining hall became known as la salle des pas perdus ("hall of lost footsteps"). (more....)
