Commune of Vendée, Pays de la Loire, Pouzauges takes place about fifty kilometers from La Roche-sur-Yon, on the edge of the Deux-Sèvres department. It is located near Reaumur Menomblet and Rochetrejoux and extends over 3,600 hectares.
The old Puzalgiae developed from the Gallo-Roman, gradually revealing the face it has today. Heavily affected by the horrors of the Hundred Years War, it was also marked by the horrors of the Vendée war between 1793 and 1796, notably through the massacre of 400 people during the Christmas night 1793 and the massacre by infernal columns in 1794.
Today more peaceful, the city of the west of France continues to attract visitors passing by the charm of its architecture and its rich historical heritage.
Built in the eleventh century, the Saint-Jacques takes place in the upper part of the city. Combining the Romanesque and Gothic styles, it is enlarged in the fifteenth century to accommodate new worshipers present. The building three ships is now topped by a square tower and reveals corbels finely carved on the walls. Inside, difficult to resist the windows of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries that tell part of the Vendée war.
Open to the public, the castle Pouzauges is located on one of the highest hills in the area, more than 240 meters. It is originally built in the twelfth century under the influence of family Thouars before experiencing changes in the fifteenth century by the wife of the notorious Gilles de Rais. At that time, the medieval dungeon turned into residential tower with the addition of windows and carved fireplaces. From Niort style, the current dungeon reminiscent of Tiffauges, also creating Gilles de Rais. Top twenty-six meters, it still presents his own murderous or latrines. Its park, freely accessible, is also very pleasant.
Built in the eleventh century, the Church of Our Lady of the Old Pouzauges reveals a Romanesque architecture that tends towards the Gothic style. Ranked historic monument, the building retains traces of color on the walls and reveals several paintings of the Old Testament, monsters or showing the months of the year by the field work. Its paving, remarkable, consists of 99 tombstones from the cemetery that adjoined the church once.
Unique in the Vendée, the twin mills of Terrier Marteau were built in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Eight meters high, they were once used for making flour. Restored, one of the buildings is again used for the creation of a local organic wheat flour and is open to the public who finds pleasure making bread. An enclosed park surrounds the site including chickens, peacocks and geese and two donkeys. Open from 1 to 31 August, it offers entertainment for children and guided tours.
Strolling around, be sure to also discover the castle of Cacaudière nineteenth century, the manor of Puy Papin fifteenth, the dolmen of Marchais, the ruins of the Abbey Wood Roland or Abbey Chaplaincy.
To explore the city, you can take the Green Wire, a tourist charming course, before you open the Lake Hope for swimming and fishing.
