Périgueux

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Coordinates: 45°11′35″N 0°43′18″E / 45.192925, 0.721664

Commune of Périgueux
The cathedral of St Front in Périgueux
Location
Périgueux (France)
Périgueux
Administration
Country France
Region Aquitaine
Department Dordogne (chief town)
Arrondissement Périgueux
Canton Divided into 3 cantons
Intercommunality Communauté
d'agglomération
Périgourdine
Mayor Michel Moyrand (PS)
(2008 – 2014)
Statistics
Elevation 75 m–189 m
(avg. 101 m)
Land area¹ 9.82 km²
Population²
(1999)		 30,193
 - Density 3,075/km² (1999)
Miscellaneous
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.
France

Périgueux (pronunciation (help·info)) (in Occitan: Peireguers [pejɾeˈɣɥes/pejɾeˈgœː] or Periguers [peɾiˈɣɥes/peɾiˈgœː]) is a city and commune in the Dordogne department and Aquitaine region of France. Périgueux is the chief town (préfecture) of the department and the capital of the region. It is also the seat of a Roman Catholic diocese.

Contents

[edit] History

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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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] The cathedral

Main article: Périgueux Cathedral
The bell tower of St Front's 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.

[edit] External links

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