Angers: The Apocalypse Tapestry and the Song of the World
Pays de la Loire, France
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Apocalypse Watcher
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225
XP
+100 France
= 325 total
1 day
Angers: The Apocalypse Tapestry and the Song of the World
225 + 100 XP
Angers holds the largest surviving set of medieval tapestries in the world and the largest contemporary one, and they answer each other. The Apocalypse Tapestry was commissioned by Louis I of Anjou between 1373 and 1377 and finished around 1380; of its ninety scenes, sixty-eight survive intact and seven in part, after the Revolution cut it up for horse blankets, doormats and frost covers for orange trees. Jean Lurçat saw it in 1937 and set out to answer it: his ten-panel Chant du Monde, 80 m long, was begun in 1957 and completed in 1965, and hangs in a medieval hospital hall across the river.
Required Activities
1
of 4
Walk the 800 m circuit of the Château d'Angers, built between 1230 and 1242 on Blanche of Castile's orders as the kingdom's outpost against the count of Brittany, counting its seventeen round towers of over forty metres — then work out on the north side why there are no towers at all: the cliff above the Maine did the job and was never fortified
2
of 4
Walk the full length of the Apocalypse Tapestry in its gallery, about 100 m of the original 140, and find where the losses are: of ninety original scenes, sixty-eight survive whole and seven only in part, and the sixth and last piece is the most broken of all. Notice the gallery is deliberately dark — the tapestry is kept at a constant 19 degrees under lighting capped at 40 lux
3
of 4
In the courtyard, find the royal lodging Louis II raised about 1410 and the chapel Yolande of Aragon built to house the relic of the True Cross of Anjou, and look for what has been done to them since: the chapel was cut in half by an extra floor in 1813 to hold two hundred English naval prisoners, a vault came down under Allied bombs in May 1944, and the lodging's roof burned again in January 2009
4
of 4
In the salle des malades of the Hôpital Saint-Jean — 60 m by 22.50 m under Angevin gothic vaults, once 110 beds for men and 112 for women behind wooden partitions — walk the length of Jean Lurçat's Chant du Monde, 80 m of tapestry 4.40 m high, and follow the ten panels from the atomic bomb and Hiroshima through to the conquest of space and the ode to poetry he ended on
Walk the 800 m circuit of the Château d'Angers, built between 1230 and 1242 on Blanche of Castile's orders as the kingdom's outpost against the count of Brittany, counting its seventeen round towers of over forty metres — then work out on the north side why there are no towers at all: the cliff above the Maine did the job and was never fortified
Walk the full length of the Apocalypse Tapestry in its gallery, about 100 m of the original 140, and find where the losses are: of ninety original scenes, sixty-eight survive whole and seven only in part, and the sixth and last piece is the most broken of all. Notice the gallery is deliberately dark — the tapestry is kept at a constant 19 degrees under lighting capped at 40 lux
In the courtyard, find the royal lodging Louis II raised about 1410 and the chapel Yolande of Aragon built to house the relic of the True Cross of Anjou, and look for what has been done to them since: the chapel was cut in half by an extra floor in 1813 to hold two hundred English naval prisoners, a vault came down under Allied bombs in May 1944, and the lodging's roof burned again in January 2009
In the salle des malades of the Hôpital Saint-Jean — 60 m by 22.50 m under Angevin gothic vaults, once 110 beds for men and 112 for women behind wooden partitions — walk the length of Jean Lurçat's Chant du Monde, 80 m of tapestry 4.40 m high, and follow the ten panels from the atomic bomb and Hiroshima through to the conquest of space and the ode to poetry he ended on
Before you go
Le Chant du Monde is away at Aubusson while the Aubusson tisse Tolkien hanging occupies the salle des malades from 10 April to 8 November 2026, so check before crossing the river; the museum and the medieval hall are open either way. The hospital's own 12th-century chapel keeps its original furnishings but is closed to the public. The Apocalypse gallery is kept dark and cool on purpose, so give your eyes time rather than assuming the lights have failed.
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About Pays de la Loire
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Challenge Location
XP Breakdown
Challenge XP
225 XP
France country bonus
+100 XP
Potential total
325 XP
Country bonus earned on completion of your first challenge in France.
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