Advent postcards, Matha, Charente-Maritime

 

Advent postcard, Matha, Charente-Maritime

Advent day twenty-one

Today’s cycling advent-ures postcard is from Matha in the Charente-Maritime, where we spent an interesting few hours on the return from our cycle tour to Saintes in July.

 

Matha isn’t too far from home, so is somewhere we have driven through many times over the years, and also passed through with the bikes but had never had the opportunity to discover it properly.  Thanks must again go to the Terra Aventura treasure hunt that had us exploring all manner of hidden gems. Our first discovery was the artworks and sculptures in the international peace garden. Enclosed within a walled park, the Peace Garden is home to works of art donated to Matha from all over the world, on a theme of peace and human rights. It was thought provoking, calming and inspiring, and somewhere I will return to.

 

We then discovered the church of St Barthelemy de St Herie with its mismatch of architectural styles. Having just been on an historical architecture training day for work, it was so cool (for me at least) to see both the Romanesque and Gothic styles living side by side in harmony for centuries, and now with the addition of contemporary stained-glass windows dating from 2002.

 

The icing on the cake for me however was stumbling upon the park with the Renaissance towers, that are the only remains of the Château de Matha. Much like at Javarzay, only a small part of the original château remains, but what a Renaissance beauty it is. Imagine my delight when I discovered it is linked to the fabulous Jacquette de Montbron, heroine from yesterday’s postcard from Bourdeilles. She was heir to the château, but history is unclear as to whether she also had a hand in the design as she had at Bourdeilles. She is definitely a woman whose story I want to learn more about.