Angers
Capital Of Anjou On The Maine, With A Thirteenth Century Fortress Of Seventeen Striped Towers Holding The Apocalypse Tapestry, The Largest Surviving Medieval Tapestry · Angers, Pays de la Loire
Angers is the old capital of Anjou, a lively university city on the Maine river a few kilometres above its meeting with the Loire. Its landmark is the château, a massive fortress built largely in the thirteenth century under Blanche of Castile, with seventeen round towers banded in dark schist and pale limestone and a moat laid out as gardens. Inside, a long, dimly lit gallery holds the Apocalypse Tapestry, woven in the late fourteenth century for Duke Louis I of Anjou and, at around a hundred metres of surviving panels, the largest medieval tapestry left anywhere. Below the château the old town climbs to the Cathédrale Saint-Maurice, past the carved half-timbered Maison d'Adam. The Galerie David d'Angers fills a ruined abbey church now roofed in glass, and across the river the Musée Jean-Lurçat shows a twentieth-century answer to the Apocalypse. Angers is also a base for Anjou wines, the Cointreau distillery and the Terra Botanica plant park, with Saumur and Fontevraud about an hour away.
Château d'Angers and the old town, Angers, Maine-et-Loire, Angers, Pays de la Loire, France
The old town streets, the riverbanks and the outside of the château walls are open at all hours. The château and the Apocalypse gallery are open every day for most of the year, with longer hours in the summer months and shorter ones from autumn to spring, and they close on a few public holidays such as 1 January, 1 May and 25 December; confirm the current pattern with the national monuments body that runs it. Last entry is well before closing, and the tapestry alone deserves more than an hour, so arriving late in the afternoon is a common mistake. The city museums, including the Galerie David d'Angers, the fine arts museum and the Musée Jean-Lurçat, usually close one day a week, traditionally Monday outside the summer, and open daily in high summer; confirm. The cathedral is open daily except during services. Cointreau distillery tours run on set days and times and must be booked ahead. Terra Botanica is seasonal, typically open from spring to early autumn with some weekdays closed in the shoulder months, and closed in winter. Many small restaurants close on Sunday evening and Monday.