Église Saint-Étienne-de-la-Cité

Périgueux

For more than a thousand years the Bishop of Périgueux had his seat here, in the Cité, the old Gallo-Roman town of the Petrocorii, and not on the neighbouring hill of the Puy-Saint-Front, whose importance was growing. At the beginning of the 6th century Bishop Chronope II had the first church of Périgueux built on the site of a temple dedicated to Mars. The church to be seen today was rebuilt from the 11th century onwards, from the west bay to the choir, completed in the 12th: a single nave covered by a row of domes, ending in a flat chevet, rare at that period. At its height it had four of them, with a bell tower (an English author counts only three). The year 1577 was fatal to it: a fire, then the Huguenots destroyed half the building, taking with them the two western bays, their domes and the porch tower. In 1652 the troubles of the Fronde damaged it further; it is reported that it was then used as a riding school. In 1669 the episcopal see was transferred to the church of Saint-Front, which became the cathedral, and Saint-Étienne became once again the parish church of a depopulated Cité. Today it keeps only two domes, one of them fifteen metres in diameter, but its interior preserves the 12th-century tomb of Bishop Jean d'Asside, a large 17th-century altarpiece in oak and walnut, which came from the Jesuit college and is devoted to the Assumption, a 17th-century pulpit, an 18th-century organ and a table of the dates of Easter engraved on a plaque.

Wikipédia — Église Saint-Étienne-de-la-Cité ↗

Getting there : Place de la Cité according to the Tourisme France guide (10 avenue Cavaignac according to Frommer's), in the Cité quarter. Free entry and open Monday to Saturday from 8 am to 6 pm according to Frommer's (times to be checked).

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

Ambient sound