Périgueux

French commune
nomcommune=Périgueux


caption=The cathedral of St Front in Périgueux
région=Aquitaine
département=Dordogne
arrondissement=Périgueux
canton=
insee=24322
cp=24000
maire=Michel Moyrand
mandat=2008-2014
intercomm=Périgourdine
longitude=0.721664
latitude=45.192925
alt moy=101 m
alt mini=75
alt maxi=189 m
km²=9.82
sans= 30,193
date-sans=1999
dens=3075
date-dens=1999

Périgueux (audio|fr-Perigueux.ogg|pronunciation) (in Occitan: "Peireguers" IPA| [pejɾeˈɣɥes/pejɾeˈgœː] or "Periguers" IPA| [peɾiˈɣɥes/peɾiˈgœː] ) is a commune in the Dordogne department in Aquitaine in southwestern France.

Périgueux is the prefecture of the department and the capital of the region. It is also the seat of a Roman Catholic diocese.

History

The name "Périgueux" comes from Petrocorii, a Latinization of Celtic words meaning "the four tribes" – the Gallic people that held the area before the Roman conquest. Périgueux was their capital city.

Main sights

There is an amphitheater, the remains of a temple of the Gallic goddess, "Vesunna", and a luxurious Roman villa, called the "Domus of Vesunna", built around a garden courtyard surrounded by a colonnaded perisink.

The cathedral

The cathedral of St Front was built after 1120 AD and restored in the 19th century.

The history of the church of St Front of Périgueux has given rise to numerous discussions between archaeologists. Félix de Verneihl claims that St Front's was a copy of St Mark's Basilica in Venice; Quicherat, that it was copied from the church of the Holy Apostles of Constantinople. M. Brutails is of the opinion that even if the style of St Front's reveals an imitation of Oriental art, the construction differs altogether from Byzantine methods. The dates 984-1047, often given for the erection of St Front's, he considers too early; he thinks that the present church of St Front was built about 1120-1173, in imitation of a foreign monument by a native local school of architecture which erected the other domed buildings in the south-west of France.

The local architect, Paul Abadie (1812-1884), was responsible for radical changes to St Front's which are no longer appreciated by architects or local residents who prefer the purer Romanesque church of Saint-Etienne de la Cité, the former Cathedral of Périgueux.

The cathedral is part of the World Heritage Sites of the Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France.

ee also

*Communes of the Dordogne department

References

"Based on the article in the French Wikipedia."

External links

*Catholic
* http://www.guide-du-perigord.com The first web site in the Périgord
* [http://www.arcspace.com/architects/nouvel/Gallo-Roman/ Vesunna Gallo-Roman Museum by Jean Nouvel]
* [http://www.ville-perigueux.fr/ City council of Périgueux]
* [http://www.periblog.fr/ Blog focussed on Périgueux and the Dordogne (anglophone comments welcome)]
* [http://www.perigueux-city.com/ Perigueux-city.com]