Château d'Angers

Angers

The site of the Château d'Angers was fortified from the mid-9th century by the counts of Anjou, on a rocky spur overlooking the Maine. After Anjou was joined to the royal domain, Louis IX (Saint Louis) had the mighty enclosure rebuilt between 1230 and 1240: seventeen towers of black schist striped with bands of white limestone, rising to some thirty metres and without a keep. In the 14th and 15th centuries, the dukes of Anjou transformed the fortress into a princely residence: around 1377, Louis I of Anjou commissioned the famous Apocalypse Tapestry, a hanging nearly 140 metres long woven from cartoons by the painter Jean de Bruges, today displayed in a gallery specially designed within the château. Between 1435 and 1453, King René of Anjou laid out gardens and a royal lodging, softening the defensive character of the site. Lowered at the Revolution to prevent any military use, the towers then served as a prison and later a powder magazine before being listed as a historic monument and restored from the 19th century onwards. The Apocalypse Tapestry, a major work of European medieval art preserved almost intact, remains the main reason why the monument is today one of the most visited sites in the Loire Valley.

Getting there : 2 Promenade du Bout du Monde, Angers, in the town centre, on foot from the cathedral of Saint-Maurice (about 600 m).

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound