BRANTOME, town of south-west France, in the department of Dordogne, 2om. N. by W. of Perigueux by steam-tramway. Pop. (1931) 1,076. The town, built on an island in the river Dronne, it has remains of an abbey founded by Charlemagne about 77o and afterwards destroyed by the Normans. The oldest existing portion is a square tower (I ith century). The church, which it overlooks, was originally domed in the Perigord style, but revaulted in the Angevin fashion in the 13th century. The ruined cloister dates from the 15th century. The abbey buildings (18th cent.), now serve as hotel-de-ville, magistrature and schools. The chronicler Pierre de Bourdeille (1535-1614) came into possession of the abbey, from which he took the name of Brantome.
There are several old houses (I 2th-14th cents.), a church (15th cent.) and a curious "elbowed" bridge (16th cent.). Sev eral caves, partly natural in origin, are inhabited, and many used as storehouses. Truffles are the chief article of commerce; and there are quarries of freestone in the neighbourhood. The dolmen known as Pierre-Levee, to the east of the town, is the most re markable in Perigord.