Notre-Dame la Grande is a Roman Catholic church in Poitiers, France, and a masterpiece of High Romanesque architecture. It was first mentioned in the tenth century as Sancta Maria Maior. The whole building was rebuilt in the second half of the eleventh century, and the future Pope Urban II inaugurated it in 1086. In the second quarter of the twelfth century the church was extended two spans to the west and the sculpted west front was built.
The west front carries biblical high reliefs, including the Annunciation, Visitation, Nativity and Parousia. The nave is barrel-vaulted, and the church has no transepts. The apse has frescoes of the Apocalypse, and the crypt has eleventh-century frescoes.
Huguenots damaged the sculpture in 1562. A restoration in 1851 repainted the columns and vaults, and the writer Huysmans called the paintings tattoos. The restored west front was inaugurated in 1995.
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