Looming above the river, the forbidding Château d’Angers (chateau-angers.fr; adult €12 or €14, child free, €1 less online), seat of power of the once-mighty dukes of Anjou, is ringed by moats, 2.5m-thick walls and 17 massive, menacing round towers. An audioguide (€3) is highly recommended.
As you enter the château, turn left and climb the stone stairs to reach the Parapet Walk. Perched atop of the castle’s eastern and southern ramparts, it offers beautiful views of the city – and a tiny chenin blanc vineyard!
The château's artistic and historic highlight is the stunning, UNESCO-listed Tapestry of the Apocalypse, a 104m-long series of 71 scenes commissioned in 1375 to illustrate the story of the final bloody battle between good and evil as prophesied in the Bible’s book of Revelation. The vivid, graphic novel–style scenes mix terror, pathos, extreme violence, humor and seven-headed dragons, giving visitors an extraordinary peek into the medieval mind, its dreams and its deepest fears. It also presents an incredibly vivid portrait of life and its sorrows in the 14th century, in France a time of plague (the Black Death) and political and social turmoil.
