Hauts LieuxChapels, sanctuaries & legends

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Legendary castleDordogne

Château Barrière

Périgueux

Dimensions
The walls rest on the Gallo-Roman wall and its massive reused blocks; the upper parts of the towers and curtain walls are of small rubble interspersed with brick. Two towers survive, the eastern one and the southern, together with mullioned windows and, on the truncated east tower, a doorway with Flamboyant decoration.
Period
Gallo-Roman footings of the late 3rd century, buildings of the 11th–12th century, elevations of the 15th century and of the early Renaissance.
What stands there
Classified as a monument historique in 1862, on the first list (PA00082726). Property of the town of Périgueux. The castle took the name of the Barrière family, who held it in fief in the 13th century. It is built on the enclosure of the Cité, one of the two urban nuclei whose merger formed Périgueux.

The château Barrière is planted on the late-3rd-century Gallo-Roman enclosure that defended the Cité, one of the two boroughs whose merger made Périgueux. Its footings reuse the massive blocks of that wall, while the upper parts of the towers and curtain walls are built of small rubble interspersed with brick. A fief of the Barrière family in the 13th century, it was raised and reworked from the 11th to the 16th century; two towers remain, together with mullioned windows and, on the truncated east tower, a doorway with Flamboyant decoration. The Huguenots partly destroyed it in 1575, during the Wars of Religion, and it was never raised again. Classified as early as 1862 on the first list of monuments historiques, it belongs to the town and its exterior can be visited freely, a few steps from the amphitheatre.

Further reading

Getting there : The exterior is open to visitors. Rue de Turenne, less than two hundred metres from the Gallo-Roman amphitheatre and the church of Saint-Étienne-de-la-Cité.

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

See it on the map OpenStreetMap Directions

Ambient sound

Château Barrière
Benjamin Smith · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

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In the same department

All places — Dordogne (80).