ANGERS, a city of western France, capital of the department of
Maine-et-Loire, 191 m. S.W. of Paris by the Western railway to Nantes.
Pop. (1906) 73,585. It occupies rising ground on both banks of the
Maine, which are united by three bridges. The surrounding district is
famous for its flourishing nurseries and market gardens. Pierced
with wide, straight streets, well provided with public gardens, and
surrounded by ample, tree-lined boulevards, beyond which lie new
suburbs, Angers is one of the pleasantest towns in France. Of its
numerous medieval buildings the most important is the cathedral of
St. Maurice, dating in the main from the 12th and 13th centuries.
Between the two flanking towers of the west façade, the spires of
which are of the 16th century, rises a central tower of the same
period. The most prominent feature of the façade is the series of
eight warriors carved on the base of this tower. The vaulting of the
nave takes the form of a series of cupolas, and that of the choir and
transept is similar. The chief treasures of the church are its rich
stained glass (12th, 13th and 15th centuries) and valuable tapestry
(14th to 18th centuries). The bishop's palace which adjoins the
cathedral contains a fine synodal hall of the 12th century. Of the
other churches of Angers, the principal are St. Serge, an abbey-church
of the 12th and 15th centuries, and La Trinité (12th century). The
prefecture occupies the buildings of the famous abbey of St. Aubin; in
its courtyard are elaborately sculptured arcades of the 11th and 12th
centuries, from which period dates the tower, the only survival of the
splendid abbey-church. Ruins of the old churches of Toussaint (13th
century) and Notre-Dame du Ronceray (11th century) are also to be
seen. The castle of Angers, an imposing building girt with towers and
a moat, dates from the 13th century and is now used as an armoury.
The ancient hospital of St. Jean (12th century) is occupied by an