Explorer Angers

Angers Cathedral, dedicated to Saint Maurice, was rebuilt mainly in the 12th and 13th centuries and is an early example of Angevin Gothic, with high domed rib vaults over a wide nave without aisles. Its west front carries a gallery of statues of Saint Maurice and his companions beneath two spires, and its windows keep stained glass from the late 12th century.

The Galerie David d'Angers shows the work of the sculptor Pierre-Jean David d'Angers (1788–1856), born in the city, inside the 13th-century church of the former Toussaint Abbey, which was given a glass roof in 1984. Most pieces are his original plaster models for statues, busts and medallions, including a one-third scale model of the Panthéon pediment in Paris.

The Musée des Beaux-Arts d'Angers occupies the Logis Barrault, a 15th-century mansion in the centre of Angers, together with a 17th-century seminary and 19th-century extensions. One circuit shows paintings, sculpture and objects from the Middle Ages to today, including many 18th-century French paintings; a second traces the history of the city.

The Château d'Angers is a fortress above the River Maine, rebuilt from 1234 under Louis IX with a curtain wall of 17 round towers banded in dark slate and pale stone. Inside are the royal lodging and chapel of the Dukes of Anjou, gardens on the ramparts, and the Apocalypse Tapestry, commissioned in 1373 by Louis I of Anjou.

The Musée Jean-Lurçat occupies the Hôpital Saint-Jean, a 12th-century hospital in the Doutre district of Angers, and a neighbouring 17th-century former orphanage. The old patients' ward holds Le Chant du Monde, a cycle of ten tapestries designed by Jean Lurçat and woven from 1957; the second building shows textile art from the 1930s to today.

The Jardin des Plantes d'Angers is a 4-hectare public garden on Place Mendès-France, founded as a botanical garden in 1777 and moved in 1789 to land that had belonged to the Benedictines of Saint-Serge. Its present English-style layout by Édouard André dates from 1901–1905, with old trees, a stream with small waterfalls, a pond, a play area and animal enclosures.

Terra Botanica is a theme park devoted to plants on the northern edge of Angers, opened in 2010 by the Maine-et-Loire department on the site of a former aerodrome. Gardens, ponds, greenhouses, a butterfly house and a tethered balloon present plants from around the world and the horticultural tradition of Anjou.