Église Saint-Jean

The Baptistère Saint-Jean in Poitiers, listed here as the Église Saint-Jean, is one of the oldest Christian monuments in France and, by many accounts, in Western Europe. It stands a few steps from the cathedral, in the old episcopal quarter of Poitiers, where the bishop's residence and the first churches of the city were located. The origins of the building lie in the fourth century, in the first generations of official Christianity after the Roman Empire accepted the new faith, and it was rebuilt and extended in the following centuries, with major changes in the seventh century. For many years it was used as a parish church under the name of Saint-Jean-Baptiste.

The building started life as a baptistery, a place where adults were baptised by full immersion. At its centre is an octagonal pool, set into the floor, in which candidates stood or knelt while water was poured over them, and the eight sides of the pool are linked to the symbolism of the eighth day, the day of resurrection. The shape of the pool, together with the rectangular room around it, shows a very old pattern of Christian architecture, and walking around it gives a feeling of closeness to the earliest centuries of the church. Through the centuries the baptistery was enlarged with apses and bays, and its walls show the traces of these successive additions.

The interior has paintings on the walls. Romanesque frescoes of the eleventh and twelfth centuries survive in places, and others of the Gothic period were painted over them, so the walls form a layered record of medieval art, with figures of saints and horsemen. In addition, the building holds a collection of Merovingian sarcophagi, stone coffins of the early Middle Ages, which were found in the area and which recall how the site was used for burial.

In the nineteenth century, the building was threatened with demolition for a road scheme but was saved after protests and was classified as a historic monument. Today it is looked after as a museum site. There is a small entrance fee, and the opening hours depend on the season, with morning and afternoon openings in summer and afternoon only in winter, so check ahead.

The visit is short, about thirty minutes to an hour, and the space is small and quiet. It suits lovers of early Christian history, architecture and archaeology. Poitiers has many other medieval treasures, including the Romanesque church of Notre-Dame-la-Grande with its carved facade, and the Musée Sainte-Croix and the Basilica of Saint-Pierre are close by.