Angoulême is a town and commune in southwestern France, préfecture (capital city) of the Charente département.

In place of its ancient fortifications, Angoulême is encircled by boulevards known as the Remparts, from which fine views may be obtained in all directions. Within the town the streets are often dark and narrow, and, apart from the cathedral and the hôtel de ville, the architecture is of little interest.
The cathedral of St. Pierre, a church in the Byzantine-Romanesque style, dates from the 11th and 12th centuries, but has undergone frequent restoration, and was partly rebuilt in the latter half of the nineteenth century by the architect Paul Abadie. The façade, flanked by two towers with cupolas, is decorated with arcades filled in with statuary and sculpture, the whole representing the Last Judgment. The crossing is surmounted by a dome, and the extremity of the north transept by a fine square tower over 160 ft. high.
The hôtel de ville, also by Abadie, is a handsome modern structure, but preserves two towers of the chateau of the counts of Angoulême, on the site of which it is built. It contains museums of paintings and archaeology.