Editing Doué-la-Fontaine (section)

==Sights==
The town was known as ''Vetus Doadum'' ("Old Doadum"), ''Teotuadum castrum,''<ref>{{cite book|chapter-url=http://mateo.uni-mannheim.de/camenaref/hofmann/hof1/s0206b.html|chapter=Andes|title=[[Lexicon Universale]]|author=Hofmann, Johann Jacob|year=1698|website=CAMENA, University of Mannheim}}.</ref> in [[Late Antiquity]], identifiable in a document of 631 as ''Castrum Doe''. The foundations of a 6th-century circular [[baptistery]] beside the natural springs has been uncovered beneath the ruins of the pre-[[Romanesque architecture|Romanesque]] church of Saint-Léger, itself destroyed in the 17th century. It was the site of a [[Gallo-Roman]] [[Roman villa|villa]] that was inherited by the [[Carolingian dynasty|Carolingians]]. In his villa here, ''Theoduadum palatium'', [[Louis the Pious]] was informed of the death of his father [[Charlemagne]] in 814 and hurried to [[Aachen]] to be crowned. The villa was turned into a [[motte-and-bailey|motte]] in the 10th century, around which the village developed, in part in excavated [[caveman|troglodyte]] dwellings. In 1055 the site was identified as ''Doedus'', then ''Docium'' in 1177.

{{main article|Château de Doué-la-Fontaine}}
Doué-la-Fontaine is the site of the oldest habitable ''donjon'' ([[keep]]) in France, dating back to c. 950. No traces of Doué's medieval fortifications remain, save the names of "gates" given to certain streets. The castle is widely believed to have been the first European castle to be built out of stone (at around 950).

Nearby are the [[caveman|troglodyte]] dwellings, where the inhabitants took refuge from the [[Normans]], and commercial [[mushroom]]-growing caves. The stone of Doué-la-Fontaine was quarried for [[sarcophagus|sarcophagi]] {{convert|4|km|mi|abbr=on}} from the town. The zoo of Doué-la-Fontaine is partly built within the network of the troglodytes sites and dwellings. Recently, a cave containing sarcophagi was unearthed.

In 1793, Doué-la-Fontaine was the site of massacres during the counter-Revolutionary [[War in the Vendée|Revolt in the Vendée]], suppressed by [[Antoine Joseph Santerre|General Santerre]].