Touring Poitiers
Baptistery: Visiting a 4th
Century Historical Site in France with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget
After
we visited the Saint-Pierre Cathedral, we went to the Saint John the Baptist
Baptistery that was built in the 4th century in Poitiers.
I
thought that there was nothing older than Jouarre Abbaye outside Paris in
France with its Mérovingian art, especially its wall of stratified geometric
shapes.
The
Baptistery at Poitiers packs a lot of history into a small space.
Steps
led down into the baptismal pool that has an octagonal shape. When you are baptized, you become a child of
God where men, women, children, and slaves are equally loved. (“Slaves” is the wording used in the Bible of
all Christian sects.)
Several
times the Baptistery was faced with destruction, including during the French
Revolution when the Baptistery was taken over by the government as a national
good.
The
town’s librarian Mazet saved it as storage space probably. Storage space is always in short supply in
France in all periods even with garde manger on châteaux grounds to store food.
The
interior column capitals still had acanthus leaves, dolphin sculptures, beads,
and olives carved on them. The
Baptistery paintings included those of the hand of God, the lamb of God, and
the twelve apostles.
By
Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
Click here for: Ruth Paget's Amazon Books
Click here for: Ruth Paget's Amazon Books
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