Our Blog - Saint-Jean-d'Angély, France

A necropolis dating back 9,000 years has been discovered on the banks of the Boutonne River. The Gallo-Roman villas of Angeriacum were plundered by the Germans and then by the Bagaudes a hundred years after the fall of the Roman Empire. In 817, a monastery was founded here by Pépin 1st of Aquitaine to house the relics of Saint John the Baptist. In 860, the Vikings made an incursion in Saint-Jean-d'Angély, destroying the monastery and slaughtering the monks. In the Middle Ages, Saint-Jean-d'Angély became a stopover on the pilgrimage route to Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle. Between the 12th century and the 15th century, the city is sometimes English and sometimes French.

It isn't a large town, and it is actually shrinking. Talking to the host at the B&B that we stayed at nearby, she said that the town was somewhat dying, since a biscuit/cookie factory in the town had closed several years back. It is in dire need of something to bring some life back into it, and perhaps they have found that "something" in a new French series called "Voltaire Mixte". It is an original French series on Amazon Prime Video and it takes place in a 60's high school for boys in France after the introduction of mixed education. It shows the "joys and sorrows of a generation" through the eyes of the students and their teachers. It is supposed to be available in 2021. They happened to be filming there, which is why we knew about it. Okay, now on with the sights!

There are several 15th and 16th century half-timbered houses here. We grabbed pictures of two of them.

The Tour l'Horloge was built by the city between 1406 and 1410, and the bell dates from the 18th century. It has a high slate roof from 1764, and it is decorated with a representation of the Archangel Saint Michael.

The Sous-Prefecture and the Mairie sit facing each other, and have two very different styles. Built by Bonnet in 1867, the Sous-Prefecture is neoclassical in style, with a columned façade. The Mairie, built between 1882 and 1884, is in a neo-Renaissance style designed by Charles-François Bunel.

The pillory fountain was originally an elegant mid-16th century well located at an old Renaissance castle nearby. When the castle was demolished, the well was bought by the town residents and reassembled in 1819. You can still read around its perimeter (if you can read Gothic characters) "l’an MVCXLVI je fus édifiez et assis" which I think means "In the year 1567 I was built and seated". Its rich sculpted decor represents the ornaments specific to the style of the French Renaissance: balusters, falling ornaments, and foliage.

The Royale Abbey dates back to before 1010, but the first abbey was plundered several times by the Vikings. The abbey as it is visible today dates starting from 1622. There are three courtyards, one of which supposedly houses the tables from a restaurant. In 1805, the arcades of this cloister built in 1644 were dismantled, then reassembled on the town hall square as a covered market, then village hall in 1903. The main portal, restored in 1990, dates from 1750. This is just one small part of it that we walked by on the way back to the car.

Marché couvert, or covered market, was built in 1853 and has an old and magnificent framework. I don't know for sure, but perhaps tis framework was the arcades of the cloister from the Abbey that they say was dismantled and rebuilt as the covered market.