Périgueux is a French commune, the most populous of Périgord,
located in the center-east of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region. Capital
of the Dordogne department since 1791, the town had 29,966
inhabitants in 2017, for an urban area totaling more than 102,000
inhabitants the same year.
Labeled "4 flowers", Périgueux is
the cultural and tourist capital of the Périgord blanc, in the Isle
valley. The city offers tourists a Gallo-Roman, medieval and
Renaissance historical heritage. Recognized as a city of art and
history, Périgueux has 44 registered or classified historical
monuments, and three museums labeled Museums of France, two of which
are municipal. The city preserves and enhances its rich civil,
military and religious heritage, including its Saint-Front
cathedral, listed as historical monuments and as a UNESCO world
heritage site.
The city dates from the 1st century BC during
the Roman occupation in Gaul: the Romans settled in the plain of
Isle and created the city of Vesunna, on the site of the current
southern district. This was the Roman capital of the city of the
Petrocores. The city of Périgueux was born in 1240 from the union of
"the City" (the ancient Vesunna) and "Puy-Saint-Front". Since then,
it remains the center of Périgord, historic subdivision of
Aquitaine, then is the prefecture of the French department of
Dordogne. It grew again in 1813 with the former municipality of
Saint-Martin.
In economic terms, Périgueux, the center of the
main employment area of the department, is home to the head
offices of several regional companies. The town has an employer of
some 500 employees, the Technicentre (the Toulon workshops) of the
SNCF. Benefiting from tourism for its heritage, it is also a notable
gastronomic stopover in the heart of Périgord. Various cultural
festivities and sports competitions are organized to liven up the
region.
Its inhabitants are called the Périgourdins,
sometimes the Pétrocoriens, name taken from the people who had
Vesunna as their capital.
Around 200 BC, "the Petrocorians inhabited the region between the
Dordogne and the Vézère", according to Venceslas Kruta. They settled
during this period on the heights on the left bank of the Isle and
created, on the current territory of Coulounieix-Chamiers, a
fortified camp at La Boissière, also known under the name of "Camp
de César à la Curade. ". The Petrocoros were in Gaul and not in
Aquitaine, because before the Roman conquest these two territories
were separated by the Garumna river, as Julius Caesar wrote.
In 52 BC, they provide Vercingetorix about 5,000 warriors, to help
him face the Roman legions of Julius Caesar.
In 27 BC, during
the administrative organization of Gaul carried out by Augustus,
Périgueux was placed in the province of Aquitaine. The La Boissière
camp was abandoned and the Gallo-Roman Vesunna, future Périgueux,
was created between 25 and 16 BC and developed by the Romanized
inhabitants, having preserved their Gallic deities. In the 2nd and
3rd centuries, this Roman city prospered and was embellished with
temples, baths, amphitheater, forum, etc. Vesunna is credited with
15,000 to 20,000 inhabitants. This became at the end of the third
century the capital of the city of Petrocores. At the end of the
third century, following the invasion attributed to the Alamans, the
Roman city shrank over five and a half hectares, retreating to a
small plateau behind the ramparts. Integrating the north-western
half of the amphitheater of Vesunna, these walls are built by
reusing elements of the monuments of the city (vestiges remain of
these ramparts) and this third city takes the name of Civitas
Petrucoriorum ("city of the Petrocores "), A place which will
become" the City ".
Vésone is destroyed around the year 410
by the barbarians, favoring the appearance in the life and seventh
centuries of Puy-Saint-Front.
Middle Ages
In the ninth
century, the Normans, going up the Isle, plundered the City on
several occasions. Towards the end of the tenth century, to the
northeast and on the edge of the Isle, around a monastery that
Bishop Frotier had built in honor of Saint Front, a new fortified
center developed, named for this period the "village of
Puy-Saint-Front". To protect themselves from invaders, the two
neighboring towns built walls.
Around 1040, Périgueux was
disturbed by disturbances due to the currency struck by the count of
Périgord, Hélie II. Shortly after, Bishop Girard de Gourdon,
considering it defective and of poor quality and having prohibited
it, Count Aldebert II, son of Helie II, decided to prove, arms in
hand, that she fits. As a result, the City must take part in a long
and murderous war against the count. The few houses placed under the
protection of the new religious establishment of Puy-Saint-Front
were set on fire around 1099; the convent and the town were soon to
be rebuilt.
Many pilgrims come to meditate on the place where
the relics of Saint Front are kept81; in the twelfth century, the
number of houses increased and the town grew larger and larger.
However, over time, the inhabitants of the village split up; around
1130, in a quarrel with the convent, part of the bourgeoisie of
Puy-Saint-Front allied with Count Hélie-Rudel. This situation
arouses his envy, convinced that after having conquered
Puy-Saint-Front, it would be easier for him to finally subdue the
City, which none of his ancestors succeeded in doing. At the same
time, the counts dominated the Puy-Saint-Front.
Around 1150,
Boson III, known as de Grignols, had a large and strong tower
erected, intended to command and monitor the City, which he had just
seized. But this attempt at oppression was fatal to him and his
descendants, because it excited the anger of King Henry II of
England, who had become Duke of Aquitaine by marriage. The tower was
destroyed in 1182, at which time, following a treaty with Count
Hélie V, the Puy-Saint-Front was handed over to the son of Henry II
of England, Richard, who destroyed all the fortifications built by
him and his predecessor. It was during the same period, at the end
of the 12th century, that the “village of Puy-Saint-Front” was
organized into a municipality.
After having confiscated the
Duchy of Aquitaine from Jean sans Terre and having reunited it with
the crown of France, Philippe Auguste demands that the peoples and
the great of this duchy pay him homage. Hélie V and the inhabitants
of the future city of Périgueux then take an oath of loyalty to the
French monarch in 1204.
For many years, the Puy-Saint-Front and the counts live in
harmony. The municipal organization of this city has long been
recognized and constituted by the royal authority. As for the City,
it does not encounter any difficulty with the counts. The state of
peace lasts until 1239; a certain trust even exists between Count
Archambaud II and the city because, at that time, the latter paid
him 50 pounds in exchange for giving up the annual pension of 20
pounds, which she owed him every Christmas.
To ensure mutual
protection and assistance, and so that the rivalries are
extinguished, Périgueux was born in 1240, from a treaty of union of
the two boroughs established a few hundred meters from each other:
the City - resulting from la Vésone gallo-romaine - the town of the
bishop and the count of Périgord, and the bourgeois town of
Puy-Saint-Front.
Between the counts of Périgord and the new
town, various hostilities lasted until 1250, when the discord was
appeased by Bishop Pierre III de Saint-Astier. In the thirteenth
century, new bourgeois settled in Périgueux in order to increase
their land holdings, by buying plots which became available, while
taking advantage of the privileged relations they had with their
parishes of origin, where they still kept properties. Returning to
the region of their ancestors, cloth merchants also came to settle
in Périgueux, acquiring many rents and lands in a large radius
around the city. Count Archambaud III has other quarrels with
Périgueux: in 1266, it is about the manufacture of the coin, and in
1276 about its value. This power struggle continues from generation
to generation. In principle, the counts affect sovereign power,
claiming to be the sole owners of the village of Puy-Saint-Front
since the twelfth century, then by seeking, in the fourteenth
century, to obtain royal favor. These long conflicts ended in the
fourteenth century, when the count of Périgord, Roger-Bernard, son
of Archambaud IV, became the vassal of the English who confirmed the
bourgeois of Périgueux ("Mayors, Consuls & Citizens of the City") in
their possessions and their jurisdiction.
Since the middle of
the fourteenth century, the countryside around Périgueux has
experienced a period of serious crisis, marked in particular by a
very sharp drop in the population due to the devastating effects of
the Black Death and the Hundred Years' War. During this one,
Périgueux remained faithful to the kingdom of France, even when it
was occupied by the English between 1360 and 1363. During this
period, the counts and their descendants, residing most often in
their castle of Montignac, pledged allegiance to the Kingdom of
England. Charles VI confiscates them lands and titles for the
benefit of his brother Louis of Orleans. By cession or by marriage
with the Orléans family, Périgord passed into the hands of the house
of Châtillon in 1437, then into the house of Albret in 1481.
During the late Middle Ages, everywhere the lack of arms led to a
contraction of cultivated space: in the very heart of the vineyard
of the parish of Saint-Martin, “deserts” appear.
Modern era
In May 1472, by his letters patent, King Louis XI confirmed the
privileges of the city, following the death of Charles, Duke of
Guyenne, his brother.
The wars of religion are more deadly
for Périgueux than was the Hundred Years War. Périgueux was taken on
August 6, 1575 by the Calvinists, commanded by Favas and Guy de
Montferrand, then plundered and occupied. That same year, at Puy
Saint-Front, the reliquary and reliquary containing the remains of
the holy bishop were stolen, transported to the castle of Tiregand
where the saint's bones were thrown into the Dordogne. Périgueux
remained in the hands of Protestants until 1581, when Captain
Belsunce, governor of the city, allowed it to be kidnapped by the
Catholic Jean de Chilhaud. Périgord joined the crown of France in
1589, when its penultimate count, son of Jeanne d'Albret, became
king of France under the name of Henri IV, while leaving the county
in the prerogative of his sister Catherine de Bourbon. The latter,
who died in 1604, will be the last titular countess of Périgord.
In the seventeenth century, under the reign of Louis XIII, the
city is on the border of a region subject to rebels, which extends
to the south of the territory corresponding to the current
department of Dordogne. Périgueux therefore undergoes peasant
revolts but is not part of the towns or castles, such as Grignols,
Excideuil then Bergerac, which were taken by the peasants during
this period. In October 1651, during the Fronde, Périgueux welcomed
the troops of the Prince of Condé. In August 1653, it remained the
only town in the South-West hostile to the king, a situation which
lasted until the following September 16, when its inhabitants put
outside the slingers. It was in 1669 that the cathedral seat moved
from Saint-Étienne-de-la-Cité, ruined, to Saint-Front cathedral, the
former church of the abbey of the same name. In autumn 1698, the
misery of the last few years, which had become unbearable, led the
bishop of Périgueux to appeal to "the goodness of the King".
In March 1783, the city experienced one of the most important floods
on the Isle, the water flooding the causeway of the Saint-Georges
bridge and rising to 5.21 meters, the flood record recorded for
Périgueux88. The clergy, the nobility and the third estate come from
all over the province to elect their deputies to the Estates General
of 1789. After the creation of the departments in 1790, the
departmental assembly meets alternately in Bergerac, Périgueux and
Sarlat. Périgueux definitely became the capital of the Dordogne in
September 1791.
Contemporary period
Under the First
Empire, the city, seat of the prefecture, grew in 1813 by merging
with the former municipality of Saint-Martin. In 1857, Périgueux saw
the arrival of the railroad from Coutras and from 1862, the
installation of repair shops for locomotives and cars of the
Compagnie du Paris-Orléans. This activity still survives at the
beginning of the 21st century in the Toulon district. It was also in
the 19th century that two architects worked in Périgueux. Louis
Catoire built the Palais de Justice, the Coderc covered market and
the Theater - which no longer exists - and various buildings on
Place Bugeaud. Paul Abadie restores the Saint-Front cathedral.
Second World War
In 1939, following the advance of German
forces in Alsace and Lorraine, the inhabitants of these two regions
were evacuated and distributed in the Center-West and South-West of
France. Périgueux thus welcomed, from September 5, 1939, thousands
of Strasbourg residents; Strasbourg town hall is located at 2 rue
Voltaire, in the premises of the Chamber of Commerce. The
administrative services returned to Strasbourg in July 1940, but the
mayor, Charles Frey, remained in Périgueux until November 28, 1944.
Regiments dissolved on French territory are authorized to
organize the Armistice Army in the free zone, to maintain order. The
26th infantry regiment therefore became the new regiment of the
Dordogne, in August 1940, in Périgueux. Gradually, the Resistance
appears in the city: movements and networks are created, for the
preparation and distribution, for example, of false papers or
underground newspapers. The resistance fighters, engaged in the
army, organize sabotage and attacks. After having served as an
ammunition depot for the Resistance, the Institution Saint-Joseph
served as a meeting place where, in June 1942, the resistance
movement Combat was founded, which organized the maquis AS, formed
the 50th and 26th RI. The founders are André Boissière, Gabriel de
Choiseul-Praslin, Georgette Claude-Gérard, Raymond Faro, H. Hortala,
Edmond Michelet, Jean Sigala and J. Villot. On October 3, 1942, the
first explosive attack damaged the kiosk of the French Legion of
Fighters in the city, located on Place Bugeaud, and caused a rift
between the Gaullists and the Pétainists. The effects of Vichy's
collaborationist policy ended up degrading the popularity of
Philippe Pétain, leading to a certain number of hairy people in the
Resistance.
On November 11, 1942, German troops invaded the
free zone. The German convoys enter the city and settle in the
Daumesnil district, forcing the 26th Infantry Regiment to disband
six days later. The Gestapo moved to the current Place du Général de
Gaulle and was part of the local administration at the time, helped
by Paul Lapuyade, departmental delegate of the Legion of French
volunteers, who collected a lot of information for the Nazis.
The Resistance intensified in 1943, causing a bomb attack on
October 9, which targeted the Germans for the first time, choosing
the headquarters of the Gestapo as a target. But reprisals were
immediately triggered, leading to the arrest of seventeen resistance
fighters and the deportation of most of them. On November 9, a new
attack, directed against the Germans at the main office of the
gendarmerie, caused extensive material damage and injuries. A
repressive operation was immediately organized, targeting mainly the
Jews, of whom 1,672 were registered in the district and 700 in the
city itself. A major sabotage instigated by the regional committee
of Mavericks and partisans, carried out by men from Camp Wodli, put
out of use, on December 13, 1943, one of the most powerful lifting
cranes in France, parked for repair in the workshops of the SNCF of
Périgueux.
On May 10, 1944, the militia and the Vichy police
arrested and gathered 211 people in the Palace room, then
transferred them to the sites of the Atlantic Wall, to perform
forced labor, interned them in Haute-Vienne or deport them to
Germany. On D-Day, the Allies land in Normandy. The Perigord
resistance fighters then attacked military objectives in order to
paralyze the enemy. The Germans counterattack, killing more than 500
civilians. Faced with this situation, the staff of the French
Interior Forces, newly formed, gave the Germans an ultimatum of
August 17, but received no response. On August 18, a plan to
surround Périgueux was underway. At the same time, the landing of
Provence provokes a sudden outcome for the city: Hitler decides the
withdrawal of his troops based in the south of France. After having
shot, at first, 35 resistance fighters, then 14 others who had been
interned, the Germans abandoned the city, without destruction or
combat, on August 19, 1944. On August 24, 1944, the liberation
parade took place in which Roger Ranoux , Yves Péron, Édouard Valéry
participate, with many other resistance fighters.
Since the
end of the war
After heavy rains leading to accelerated snowmelt,
the Isle entered a hundred-year flood and reached its maximum at
4.50 meters on December 8, 1944, causing 7,000 victims and flooding
a third of Périgueux.
In 1945, Hans Kowar, a German prisoner
of war, worked in Bergerac, in Nastringues, on a farm belonging to
the family of the priest Henri Cellerier, who taught the German
language in Périgueux. The two men become friends and, back home,
Kowar shows his town, Amberg, to Cellerier. In 1961, a municipal
delegation from Périgord went to Amberg and the twinning was
formalized on October 2, 1965. The association of friends of Amberg
was created in 1993 to give rise until today to numerous exchanges
between students, such as the one that takes place every year again,
between the Clos-Chassaing college and the Erasmus Gymnasium.
In 1964, the 5th regiment of hunters on horseback moved to the
Daumesnil district. Attached to the 15th Infantry Division in 1977,
it intervened in Lebanon between 1986 and 1993 and in Yugoslavia
from 1992 to 1994, when it was dissolved and therefore left
Périgueux.
During the years 1950 to 1970, the faubourg des
Barris developed on the left bank of the Isle. The bridge of the
same name connects the suburb and the city.
Following the
1939 evacuation of 80,000 Alsatians in the Dordogne and mainly in
Périgueux for the Strasbourg residents, 20% remained in Périgord.
From this, relationships are born; Périgueux and Strasbourg
concluded a cooperation agreement in 2008, after deliberation by the
municipal council of Périgueux. Located in the park, in front of the
Bertran-de-Born high school, a stele marks the recognition of
Strasbourg in Périgueux for the reception of refugees during the
Second World War.