The story of this place
The formidable Château d'Angers, its 17 drum towers banded in dark schist and pale stone rising from a dry moat, was raised in the 13th century by the future Saint Louis to guard the frontier of Brittany. Within it hangs the Apocalypse Tapestry, woven between 1377 and 1382 for Duke Louis I of Anjou: the largest surviving medieval tapestry in the world, originally some 140 metres long and 6 metres high, depicting the visions of Saint John's Book of Revelation in 90 scenes of dragons, angels and the end of days. Discarded and cut up after the Revolution—even used to cover orange trees—it was rescued and restored in the 19th century, and its 100 surviving metres remain breathtaking.