The best road cycling routes around Saint-Grégoire-D'Ardennes

You can also spend a night at the Saint James House B&B, quality guest rooms, swimming pool and view of the Donjon 🙂

The keep of Pons is located in the commune of Pons in the French department of Charente-Maritime in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region. This tower is the old keep of the castle of Pons. 33 m high, it is visible from a long distance and is the symbol of the city. With the Saint-Gilles chapel, the remains of the ramparts and the main building, it constitutes the remains of the ancient castle of Pons.

A small town in the Charente Maritime region. There are a number of historical monuments, such as the castle, the castle and several churches.

For people with a head for heights, it is worth climbing the 30-metre-high tower. There is also a museum in the building. It is one of the 'Monument historique' in France.

In 1073, the castle already exists; the first known lord was Guillaume de la Rochandry at the beginning of the 12th century. The 1449 inscription on the castle attests to its reconstruction following the destruction caused by the Hundred Years War. In 1505, Jean de Sainte-Maure, lord of Jonzac, founded the Carmelite monastery on the remains of an old chapel dedicated to Saint Nicolas. The cloister was built in 1657. The young Louis XIV, the Queen Mother and Mazarin stayed at the castle in 1659. The castle remained at Sainte-Maure until the end of the 17th century, then passed through marriage to Espardes de Lussan, which transformed the fortress in beautiful stately home with neat ornamentation and guard until the Revolution. Currently the north wing of the castle houses the buildings of the Town Hall (restored in the 19th century), and the south wing, those of the sub-prefecture. The cloister was restored between 1976 and 1978, and now houses a cultural center, with exhibition halls and an archaeological museum. The towers, postern and fountain in the basement date from the 12th century. Of the old feudal castle, only the postern and an isolated tower remain, connected to the main body by a large hall. The moat in front of the drawbridge was filled was filled in the 19th century. It was reopened at the beginning of the 21st century. The imposing gatehouse is marked 1549 and therefore dates from the 16th century, a period of work including the north-west tower, while the south-west tower, of a smaller diameter, is from the 17th century. The towers flanking the postern have retained their defenses. At each, the loopholes have been retained or enlarged. Stone stairs serve each floor and access the walkway. This passage seems to have been discovered, as evidenced by the gargoyles. The crenellation includes machicolations with archers in the middle of the merlons. The slate roofs are high pepperboxes on the towers, and a curious set with two sides connecting two pepperboxes for the gatehouse The fountain located in the basement of the sub-prefecture, has a niche and a niche frame decorated with sculptures imitating stalactites. Carved mask. The fountain was probably built by Léon de Sainte-Maure, Count of Jonzac, who enlarged and embellished the castle in the middle of the 12th century. In a former courtyard of the castle, a theater was built in the 19th century. It is a round building with approximately 300 seats.

The Seugne crosses a single department, in this case that of Charente-Maritime, watering thirty-six communes and seven cantons. The Seugne has its source in the canton of Montlieu-la-Garde, then crosses the cantons of Montendre, Jonzac, Saint-Genis-de-Saintonge, Pons, Gémozac and, finally, confluences in the canton of Saintes-Est. The Seugne has eighteen tributaries or referenced arms. The old forms of the name Seugne are flumen Soenna around 1100, Sonye in 1280, la Soyngna in 1322, la Soyngnhe in 1354, aqua Soynnie in 1363, Souaigne in 1494. The current pronunciations, Seugne and Souègne, are based on a medieval form Soïgne, which the scribes of the 13th and 14th centuries had difficulty transcribing. According to Duguet, a more recent spelling, Seuigne was misread and interpreted Sévigne in the 19th century.

You can commit the tower for free if you spend the night in the pilgrim's hostel. The accommodation costs € 8.69 and is well maintained.

The Donjon de Pons is a 30-meter-high medieval defense tower and - next to the Donjon of Niort - one of the finest examples of a Romanesque donjon in western France. The donjon was founded in 1187 by Geoffroy III. built by Pons, a vassal of Richard the Lionheart. He replaced an 11th-century defense tower, which had been destroyed by Richard the Lionheart during the defeat of a noble rebellion in the Saintonge in 1179. More at Wikipedia under Pons