Périgueux

Périgueux
Perigueux Cathedrale Saint Front.jpg
The cathedral of St Front in Périgueux
Périgueux is located in France
Périgueux
Administration
Country France
Region Aquitaine
Department Dordogne
Intercommunality Périgourdine
Mayor Michel Moyrand (PS)
(2008–2014)
Statistics
Elevation 75–189 m (246–620 ft)
(avg. 101 m/331 ft)
Land area1 9.82 km2 (3.79 sq mi)
Population2 29,416  (2007)
 - Density 2,996 /km2 (7,760 /sq mi)
INSEE/Postal code 24322/ 24000
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.
2 Population sans doubles comptes: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once.

Périgueux (French pronunciation: [peʁiɡø]  ( listen)) (Occitan: Peireguers [pejɾeˈɣɥes ~ pejɾeˈɡœː] or Periguers [peɾiˈɣɥes ~ peɾiˈɡœː]) is a commune in the Dordogne department in Aquitaine in south-western France.

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

Contents

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.

During the Holocaust, many Jews from Alsace were evacuated to Périgueux.

Simonne Mareuil (a lead actor from the surrealist film "Un Chien Andalou") committed self-immolation on October 24, 1954 by dousing herself in gasoline and burning herself to death in a public square in Périgueux, Dordogne.

Geography

The Isle flows through Périgueux.

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 bell tower of St Front's 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.

Notable people

Périgueux was the birthplace of:

See also

References

External links

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