Angers

Angers is a city in France in the département of Maine-et-Loire, 191 miles south-west of Paris. (The area surrounding Angers is more popularly known by its pre-revolutionary, provincial name, Anjou.)

Sights

The site of a massive and ancient chateau, the city is also noted for the impressive twin spires of the twelfth century Cathedral of Saint-Maurice. Other noteworthy churches around Angers include St. Serge, an abbey-church of the twelfth and fifteenth centuries, and the twelfth century La Trinité.

Related Topics:
Chateau - Twelfth century - Cathedral of Saint-Maurice - Fifteenth

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The famous abbey of St. Aubin has a courtyard with elaborately sculptured arcades of the eleventh and twelfth centuries. The tower there is also splendid.

Related Topics:
St. Aubin - Eleventh

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Ruins of the old churches of Toussaint (thirteenth century) and Notre-Dame du Ronceray (eleventh century) are also nearby. The ancient hospital of St. Jean (twelfth century) is occupied by an archaeological museum. The Logis Barrault, a mansion built about 1500, houses the public library and the municipal museum, which has a large collection of paintings and sculptures. The mansion also contains the collection of Musée David consisting of works by the sculptor David d'Angers, who was a native of the town. Standing outside the museum is one of his masterpieces, a bronze statue of René of Anjou, a former duke of Anjou who was born in Angers' chateau.

Related Topics:
Thirteenth century - St. Jean - 1500 - David d'Angers - René of Anjou

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The Hôtel de Pincé or d'Anjou (1523-1530) is the finest of the stone mansions of Angers. There are also many curious wooden houses of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The Palais de Justice, the Catholic Institute, a fine theatre, and a hospital with 1500 beds are the more remarkable of the modern buildings of the town. Angers is the seat of a bishopric, dating from the third century; a prefecture; a court of appeal; and a court of assizes (criminal courts). It has a tribunal of first instance, a tribunal of commerce, a board of trade-arbitrators, a chamber of commerce, a branch of the Bank of France, and several learned societies.

Related Topics:
Sixteenth - Third century - Court of assizes - Bank of France

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