Top Historic Sights in Angers, France
Explore the historic highlights of Angers
Cháteau de Angers
The Cháteau d'Angers is a castle founded in the 9th century by the Counts of Anjou. It was expanded to its current size in the 13th century. Originally, the castle was built as a fortress at one of the sites inhabited by the Romans because of its strategic defensive location. In the 9th century, the Bishop of Angers gave the Counts of Anjou permission to build a castle in Angers. It became part of the Angevin empire of t ...Angers Cathedral
Angers Cathedral (Cathédrale Saint-Maurice d'Angers) was constructed in the 12th and 13th centuries on the orders of bishops Normand de Doué and Guillaume de Beaumont after the original building burnt down in 1032. The original Romanesque church was rebuilt with Gothic details in the mid 12th century. The single-aisle plan was vaulted with pointed arches resting on a re-clad interior elevation. The nave cons ...Maison d'Adam
Maison d'Adam, Adam's House, is the oldest house of Angers. The half-timbered building was built around the year 1500. The façade is beautifully decorated with wooden sculptures. Today the house is a home of artisans of Angers.Galerie David d'Angers
The glassed-over ruins of the 13th century abbey church of Touissant are filled with plaster casts of the work of local scupltor Pierre-Jean David (1788-1856). His idealized busts and figures were much in demand as memorials for people such as the Marquis de Bonchamps.Abbey of Saint Aubin
Largely rebuilt in the 17th and 18th centuries, Saint Aubin’s old monastic buildings are now local government offices. On the left of the courtyard, you will see through the bay windows the cloister’s beautiful Romanesque gallery with its finely worked sculptures.St. Martin's Church
The 9th-century church houses today a superb collection of religious statues dating from the 14th century.Ronceray Abbey
Situated on the northern side of the city, across the River Maine from the main old town area of the city, this delightful abbey is one of the most historic ecclesiastical buildings in the area and a fine example of Anjou architecture. The building has for many centuries served as a place of worship and religious observance. The structure has benefited from a series of overhauls in the last few hundred years, making it a ...Musée Jean Lurcát
The Gothic masterpiece was founded in 1175 by Henry II of England and it functioned as a hospital until 1875. A reconstruction of the dispensary occupies one corner of the Salle des Malades, and a chapel and 12th century cloisters can be reached through a door at the end of the gallery. Today the building houses the works of the 20th century artist Jean Lurcát and many of his vivid tapestries.Cointreau Museum
Cointreau’s history began in 1849 when Adolphe and Edouard-Jean Cointreau founded a distillery in Angers to create spirits using local fruits. This was the starting point of 150 years of success story build step by step by four generations of the Cointreau family. The Carré Cointreau, (the name of the distillery and museum) is open to the public for tours. While Cointreau is dedicated to keep their special r ...Featured Historic Landmarks, Sites & Buildings
Historic Site of the week
Goseck Circle
The Goseck circle is a Neolithic circle structure. It may be the oldest and best known of the Circular Enclosures associated with the Central European Neolithic. It also may be one of the oldest Solar observatories in the world. It consists of a set of concentric ditches 75 metres across and two palisade rings containing gates in places aligned with sunrise and sunset on the solstice days.
Its construction is dated to c. 4900 BC, and it seems to have remained in use until 4600 BC. This corresponds to the transitional phase between the Neolithic Linear Pottery and Stroke-ornamented ware cultures. It is one of a larger group of so-called Circular Enclosures in the Elbe and Danube region, most of which show similar alignments.
Excavators also found the remains of what may have been ritual fires, animal and human bones, and a headless skeleton near the southeastern gate, that could be interpreted as traces of human sacrifice or specific burial ritual. There is no sign of fire or of other destruction, so why the site was abandoned is unknown. Later villagers built a defensive moat following the ditches of the old enclosure.
The Goseck ring is one of the best preserved and extensively investigated of the many similar structures built at around the same time. Traces of the original configuration reveal that the Goseck ring consisted of four concentric circles, a mound, a ditch, and two wooden palisades. The palisades had three sets of gates facing southeast, southwest, and north. At the winter solstice, observers at the center would have seen the sun rise and set through the southeast and southwest gates.
Archaeologists generally agree that Goseck circle was used for observation of the course of the Sun in the course of the solar year. Together with calendar calculations, it allowed coordinating an easily judged lunar calendar with the more demanding measurements of a solar calendar.