Angers

(a ˙ n ˙ -zhā), a town and river-port of France, capital of the department of Maine-et-Loire, and formerly of the province of Anjou, on the banks of the Maine, 5½ miles from the Loire, 150 miles south-west of Paris. It has an old castle, built by Louis IX, once a place of great strength, now used as a prison, barrack, and powder-magazine; a fine cathedral of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, with very fine old painted windows; is the seat of a bishop, and has a school of arts and manufactures; a public library, an art-gallery, a large modern hospital, the remains of a hospital founded by Henry II of England in 1155; courts of law, theatre, . It manufactures sail-cloth, hosiery, leather, and chemicals; foundries, . In the neighbourhood are immense slate-quarries. Pop. 83,786.