Founded in 1953, it's the oldest golf course in Poitou-Charentes. It's the heart of a park 40 hectares in size, and includes an 18 hole course, a practice course, a restaurant and the ruins of a Roman aqueduct.
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Canoes can be rented for half a day to take a relaxed trip on the Charente and admire the city and its surroundings from the river. It's very pleasant when the weather is good. A journey of 20 km will take about 7-8 hours, a journey of 12 km about 4 hours.
Haras National de Saintes
In a forested park of 9 hectares in size, until 2019 you could experience living 19th century heritage in the form of horse breeding. In 2019 the place was sold to an advertising entrepreneur who plans to convert the buildings into a headquarters for southwestern France, but they'll also house a restaurant, rentable space for startup businesses and apartments. As such you can just admire the buildings from a distance.
Right next to the Abbaye aux Dames, of which it is an outbuilding, and for a long time the only parish church on the right bank. It was first built in the 12th century to replace Bishop Palladius' funeral basilica, and later modified into Gothic style. This led to some interesting details; columns becoming unused, the Romanesque apse being replaced by a flat bay in "flamboyant" Gothic style, and the bell tower being shortened and covered by an atypical slate roof. There used to be a small cemetery below what's now a public square next to the church.
Founded by Count of Anjou Geoffroy Martel and his wife Agnes of Burgundy in 1047, it was once one of the most important female monasteries in southwestern France. It was richly endowed by the Dukes of Aquitaine and at its peak home to up to a hundred nuns from French nobility. Madame de Saintes, the abbess of this monastery, had a very powerful position. She carried a bishop's staff, for female religious leaders an almost unheard of privilege at the time, and also had the right to mint money and act as a judge. In 1320 it was placed under the protection of the French king, as the right bank became French territory, which greatly angered the Duke of Aquitaine (the English king). After the revolution, indeed already somewhat before, the monastery declined, and was converted into a jail and later a barracks. In the mid 20th century it became a religious building again, and is now also a cultural institution. The abbey also has a separate church, the Église Saint-Marie, which has an interesting bell tower which is said to look like a pine cone and a decorated portal, plus some additional buildings related to the abbey.
Small electric boats carrying five persons which can be rented without prior reservation and without a skipper's license required. Departing from Place Bassompierre.
A triumphal arch built in 18 or 19 AD by Caius Julius Rufus, to celebrate emperor Tiberius, his son Drusus, and his nephew and adoptive son Germanicus. In Roman times it marked the eastern entrance to the city and was placed in the front of the bridge across Charente. When the quai was modernized in 1843-51, the arch was disassembled and rebuilt 15 m away at its current place. Some Roman inscriptions are still visible on the arch.