of many villas, baths and had an amphitheatre as well as a temple dedicated to Mithra.
Successive Germanic invasions in 275 and 276 forced the inhabitants to move on the highest point of their city and to build a wall around a small area of around 9 hectares.
Middle Ages
Angers gets its first bishop in 372, during the election of Martin of Tours. The first abbey, Saint-Aubin, is built during the 7th century to house the sarcophagus of Saint Albinius. Saint-Serge abbey is founded by the Merovingian kings Clovis II and Theuderic III a century later. In 2008, ten sarcophagi form that period were discovered where Saint-Morille church once stood during the tramway construction.
From the 850s, Angers suffers from its situation on the border with Brittany and Normandy. In September 851, Charles the Bald and Erispoe, a Breton chief, meet in the town to sign the Treaty of Angers, which secures the Breton independence and fixes the borders of Brittany. However, the situation remains dangerous for Angers, and Charles the Bald creates in 853 a wide buffer zone around Brittany comprising parts of Anjou, Touraine, Maine and Sées, which is ruled by Robert the Strong, a great-grandfather of Hugh Capet.
In 870, the Viking chief Hastein seizes Angers where he settles, but quickly surrounds after a siege. He takes again control of the town in 873, before being ousted by the Carolingian Emperor.
Fulk I of Anjou, a Carolingian descendant, is, first, viscount of Angers (before 898 until 830) and of Tours (898-909), and count of Nantes (909-919). Around 929, he takes the title of count of Angers and founds the first Anjou dynasty.
During the 12th century, after internal divisions in Brittany, the county of Nantes is annexed by Anjou. Henry II Plant agenêt keeps it for more than 30 years. At the same time, he also rules the vast Angevin Empire, which stretched from the Pyrenees to Ireland. The castle of Angers is then the seat of
