Parc de Blossac and St-Hilaire
France > Southwest > Poitou > Poitiers > Parc de Blossac and St-Hilaire
Towards the southern tip of the old town, where the hump of the hill narrows to a point, the Parc de Blossac is a great spot to sit among the clipped limes and gravelled walks, to watch the boules and munch a baguette. Nearby is the eleventh-century church of St-Hilaire-le-Grand, on rue du Doyenné, which unbelievably was pruned of part of its nave in the nineteenth century, though the chevet from the outside is still a fine sight; the apse has a particularly beautiful group of chapels surrounding it. Inside, there's the usual ambulatory to accommodate the many pilgrims who flocked here, one of whom perhaps caused the fire around 1100 that destroyed the original wooden roof and necessitated the improvised arrangement that makes St-Hilaire architecturally unique: eight heavy domes introduced for the reroofing had to be supported somehow, hence the forest of auxiliary columns that make three aisles either side of the nave.
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