archaeological museum; and the Logis Barrault, a mansion built about
1500, contains the public library, the municipal museum, which has
a large collection of pictures and sculptures, and the Musée David,
containing works by the famous sculptor David d'Angers, who was a
native of the town. One of his masterpieces, a bronze statue of René
of Anjou, stands close by the castle. The Hôtel de Pincé or d'Anjou
(1523-1530) is the finest of the stone mansions of Angers; there are
also many curious wooden houses of the 15th and 16th centuries. The
palais de justice, the Catholic institute, a fine theatre, and
a hospital with 1500 beds are the more remarkable of the modern
buildings of the town. Angers is the seat of a bishopric, dating
from the 3rd century, a prefecture, a court of appeal and a court of
assizes. It has a tribunal of first instance, a tribunal of commerce,
a board of trade-arbitrators, a chamber of commerce, a branch of
the Bank of France and several learned societies. Its educational
institutions include ecclesiastical seminaries, a lycée, a preparatory
school of medicine and pharmacy, a university with free faculties
(_facultés libres_) of theology, law, letters and science, a higher
school of agriculture, training colleges, a school of arts and
handicrafts and a school of fine art. The prosperity of the town
is largely due to the great slate-quarries of the vicinity, but the
distillation of liqueurs from fruit, cable, rope and thread-making,
and the manufacture of boots and shoes, umbrellas and parasols are
leading industries. The weaving of sail-cloth and woollen and other
fabrics, machine construction, wire-drawing, and manufacture of
sparkling wines and preserved fruits are also carried on. The chief
articles of commerce, besides slate and manufactured goods, are hemp,
early vegetables, fruit, flowers and live-stock.

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