A little history of Saint-Aubin tower in Angers
And also
The tops
The abbey
Saint-Aubin tower was part of the Saint-Aubin abbey founded circa 530 by saint Germain and king Childebert. It's the oldest abbey of Anjou, first occupied by regular monks then in the 10th century by Benedictine monks.
Dedicated first to saint Germain of Auxerre, saint Aubin named it in honour of the bishop of Angers.
But let's talk a little about the current buildings belonging to the abbey, dating back to the 17th century.
In the beginning of the 19th century, we found here the seat of the Maine-et-Loire departement. What about the abbot church? They demolished it in order to open a street...
The tower
So what about that tower? Until the French Revolution, it housed bells: a kind of belfry! Abbot of Saint-Aubin, Robert de La Tour-Landry, laid down the first stone of the tower in 1130.
We had a ground floor, a vaulted square room, then a staircase which led to the 3 floors. They just added a slate roof, then, a small lantern.