Poitiers

France

Poitiers is a city on the Clain River in west-central France, capital of the Vienne department and historic centre of the Poitou region. Founded by the Celtic Pictones and called Pictavium under Rome, it became an early Christian see; Hilary of Poitiers, its bishop from about 350 to 367, was a leading Western opponent of Arianism, and the city's Baptistery of Saint John dates from the fourth century. Two battles bear its name, Charles Martel's victory over an Umayyad army in 732 and the English victory of 1356 in the Hundred Years' War. Its university, founded in 1431, counted René Descartes among its law students.