Saintes

Saintes lies on the Charente, an ancient city whose churches bear witness to the rich Romanesque art of Saintonge. The abbey church of Notre-Dame, with its carved portal and distinctive bell tower, belonged to the Abbaye aux Dames, founded in 1047 as the first convent for women in Saintonge. Saint-Eutrope housed the tomb of the city’s first bishop and drew pilgrims on the road to Santiago de Compostela.

During the Hundred Years’ War the Charente became a political frontier: the fortified city on the left bank lay under the English king, while the abbey on the right bank remained under French authority. Later wars and fires damaged the convent, whose buildings were rebuilt under Abbess Françoise de Foix in the seventeenth century.