37 Facts About Angers

Not including the broader metropolitan area, Angers is the third most populous commune in northwestern France after Nantes and Rennes and the 18th most populous commune in France.

Today, Angers stands out for its specialization in the plant sector: Vegepolys is Europe's leading horticultural competitiveness cluster, and the city is home to the headquarters of the Community Plant Variety Office.

Angers enjoys a rich cultural life, made possible by its universities and museums.

Angers is both at the edge of the Val de Loire, a World Heritage Site, and the Loire-Anjou-Touraine regional natural park.

Angers was traditionally known as the "Black City" because many roofs were built of slate, due to the quarry in neighbouring Trelaze.

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Under Napoleon I's rule, Angers was one of the "Bonnes villes" and was therefore allowed to ask for a new coat of arms.

Angers in located at the geographical center of the Maine-et-Loire department, on the road which connects Paris to the Atlantic ocean.

Angers is a hilly town, particularly marked by a rocky promontory dominating the lower valley of Anjou.

Commune of Angers is bordered by ten other communes which form various suburbs.

Oldest streets and buildings in Angers are located on the promontory where the Angers castle stands.

Angers received its first bishop in 372 during the election of Martin of Tours.

Angers again took control of the town in 873, before the Carolingian Emperor ousted him.

Around 929, he took the title of count of Angers and founded the first Anjou dynasty, the House of Ingelger .

Angers subsequently formed the capital of the province of Anjou.

Now a part of the Kingdom of France, Angers became the "Key to the Kingdom" facing still independent Brittany.

Angers transformed the castle moat into a menagerie and built several gardens.

Angers founded in Angers a new Ordre du Croissant which was supposed to compete with the Order of the Golden Fleece, created several years earlier.

In 1551, Angers became the seat of a bailiwick and the presidial of a jurisdiction, a position the city kept until 1790.

In 1649, the people of Angers revolted against rising taxes, the start of the Fronde in Anjou.

Royalist repression in Angers was narrowly averted by Bishop Henri Arnauld, who interceded with the Queen Mother.

Angers again became rebellious and Louis XIV sent his army to seize it.

In 1971, a decision was made to reestablish a public university, and the Universite catholique d'Angers was split between the Universite catholique de l'Ouest and the Universite d'Angers .

Until the 1980s, Angers experienced several massive urban development plans, such as the construction of the Lac de Maine, and several vast council estates and shopping malls, as well as the construction of a highway which crossed the city through its center, a project that forced the destruction of many old buildings and destroyed the original quays on the Maine.

Angers is divided into eight cantons; most of them include parts of Angers plus some surrounding communes.

Angers has several other courts of justice as well as a prison.

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Thanks to its several higher education schools, laboratories, and various offices, Angers is the largest horticultural center in Europe and, as the home of the Community Plant Variety Office, Angers is the hub of the plant breeders' rights system in the European Community.

Angers serves as a regional financial center, with many banks and insurance companies maintaining their regional offices there.

Angers is home to engineering graduate schools, such as the Arts et Metiers ParisTech, top school in mechanical and industrial engineering and the ESEO, an engineering school in electronics and computer science and ESAIP, an engineering school in risk management and environment.

Angers is situated on the crossroads of three highways, the A11, to Paris and Nantes, the A87 to La Roche-sur-Yon and the A85 to Tours and Lyon.

Angers inaugurated the new Irigo tram system on 25 June 2011.

Besides the tram, Irigo organizes the bus network in Angers consisting of 13 urban lines and 12 suburban lines.

Bus station, situated outside the Angers Saint-Laud train station, is a hub for the departmental bus network and is served by international bus companies.

The main station, Angers Saint-Laud, is on a TGV line and has direct TGV services to Paris, Lyon, Strasbourg, and Lille, as well as Avignon, Marseilles and Montpellier.

Chateau d'Angers, built on a schist promontory, dominates the river Maine and the old town.

Musee des Beaux-Arts d'Angers, located in the Renaissance Logis Barrault, displays a collection of paintings and sculptures dating from the 14th century to today.

Museum d'histoire naturelle d'Angers has been located in the 1521 Hotel Demarie-Valentin since 1885.

Angers enjoys a Maison de l'Architecture, which organizes various exhibitions and workshops, as well as several temporary exhibition galleries distributed in the city center.