The Cathedral of St. Pierre is an exceedingly interesting Romanesque-Byzantine building, begun in the eleventh century, and constructed mainly between 1110 and 1130. From 1630 to 1654 it underwent restoration, and recently Paul Abadie supervised the work which has robbed the building of some of its external picturesqueness. The western façade, however, remains, with all its carved detail, showing the ideas of the Last Judgment prevalent 800 years ago.
Beyond the interest of the Romanesque architecture of the interior, there are on the north wall of the nave some restored inscriptions coeval with the building and the tomb of Philippe de Voivre, Marquis de Ruffec and Governor of Angoulême, who was assassinated in Paris in 1585.
Town Plan No. 12.—Angoulême.
Adjoining the cathedral is the Évêché, built at the same time, but restored at different periods, chiefly in the fifteenth century. It was lately bought by the town, and is to be converted into a museum and library.
The Hôtel de Ville was built between 1858 and 1866 by Paul Abadie, on the site of the old castle of the counts, and into it are incorporated two of its great towers. The earlier, called le Tour Polygone, was built by Hugues IV. (le Brun), who died in 1303, and the Tour de Valois, in which Marguerite de Valois was born, is a fifteenth-century work. At the present time the museums of painting and archæology are in the ground floor of the Hôtel de Ville. They are fairly interesting.
The history of Angoulême is similar to that of Poitiers in the main events.
On leaving Angoulême the road crosses a common of almost English type, and then a good deal of woodland, until one reaches the village of Dignac, prettily situated on hilly ground, with the tower of its Romanesque church showing prominently. Then follows a wood of oaks and more common-land, succeeded by open country with wide views.
Near La Rochebeaucourt the road goes to the right, and curves downhill to a level-crossing by the railway-station adjoining the village. Close by, on the left, is the château, among trees, with circular machicolated towers and conical roofs. The Romanesque church has a fine rose-window on the south side.
Going to the right, at the cross-roads in the village, there is a pleasant run by the stream called La Belle Rivière, which the road follows almost to its source among the hills above Monsec. On approaching Mareuil-sur-Belle, the first building to be seen is the interesting château of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, to the left in the marshy ground by the river. The big cylindrical towers of the gateway and the round staircase tower at the north-east corner are in excellent preservation, and so are the buildings on three sides of the courtyard; but having fallen from its dignity as a seat of one of the four baronies of Périgord, it is now an unkempt farmhouse. There are some beautifully designed doorways and windows in the courtyard, and one can look into the chapel, which is now given over to secular uses. An inscription to the memory of the troubadour Arnant de Mareuil (twelfth century) was placed over the doorway in 1903 by the Félibres of Périgord.