Château d'Angers

Château d'Angers

A fortress of seventeen towers

In the city of Angers, on the edge of the Loire valley, stands one of the mightiest medieval fortresses in France. The Château d'Angers is ringed by seventeen huge round towers, their walls banded in dark blue-grey schist and pale white stone, giving the whole fortress a bold striped appearance. Unlike the graceful, fairy-tale châteaux of the Loire, Angers is a true war-castle — massive, grim and powerful, built to dominate the city and the river.

Built for a king

The great fortress was raised in the 1230s for the French crown, during the reign of the young King Louis IX (later Saint Louis) and his mother, Blanche of Castile, who governed while he was a child. At that time the region had only recently come under the control of the French kings, and a strong castle was needed to hold it firmly.

Workers built the enormous ring of walls and towers in just about ten years — an extraordinary effort. The striped stonework, using local materials, gave the fortress its distinctive look, which it keeps to this day.

The Apocalypse Tapestry

The greatest treasure of the Château d'Angers is hidden within its walls: the Apocalypse Tapestry, the largest medieval tapestry that survives anywhere in the world. Woven in the late 1300s, it was originally about 140 metres long — longer than a football pitch — and richly coloured.

The tapestry tells, scene by scene, the dramatic story from the Book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible, full of angels, beasts, battles and visions of the end of the world. Over the centuries the tapestry was neglected and even cut up and used as rags and covers, but much of it was rescued and restored. Today it hangs in a specially built gallery within the château, where visitors can walk slowly past its astonishing scenes — a window into the medieval imagination.

A castle through the ages

Over the centuries the Château d'Angers served as a fortress, a noble residence, a prison and an arsenal. Its towers were once even taller, but their tops were lowered in later times. During the Second World War the château was damaged, but it was repaired afterwards, and the precious tapestry survived.

Within the walls, in calmer times, gardens were planted and elegant smaller buildings added, softening the grim fortress with touches of beauty.

Visiting today

Visitors can walk the great ramparts and climb the towers of the Château d'Angers for sweeping views over the city and the river Maine, explore the gardens within the walls, and — above all — spend time with the magnificent Apocalypse Tapestry in its gallery. Mighty, striped and home to one of the wonders of medieval art, the Château d'Angers is one of the great fortresses of France.