Angers Castle: a fortress of the dukes of Anjou

Over the drawbridge and inside the walls, the interior courtyard of the fortress was built by Saint Louis around the year 1230, with elegant gardens and buildings raised between the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The royal chambers, the chapel, and the châtelet were constructed alongside other structures that have since disappeared, later replaced by the gallery of the Apocalypse.

The dukes of Anjou held their princely court here in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Afterwards, from the sixteenth to the twentieth century, the castle was transformed in turn into a prison, a garrison, and then a munitions depot during the Second World War. Few monuments carry such a layered history within a single set of walls.

The highlight of any visit is the Apocalypse tapestry, one of the largest and oldest works of its kind, around 338 feet (100 meters) long. Woven in the late fourteenth century, it tells the story of the Book of Revelation across a sweep of vivid medieval scenes, and it is housed today in a gallery within the grounds of the castle.