PERIGUEUX, a town of south-western France, formerly capital of the old province of Perigord, now chief town of the department of Dordogne, 79 m. E.N.E. of Bordeaux, on the rail way between that city and Limoges. Pop. (1931), Vesunna was the capital of the Petrocorii, allies of Vercingetorix when Caesar invaded Gaul. The country was afterwards occupied by the Romans, who built a second city of Vesunna on the right bank of the Isle opposite the site of the Gallic town. The barbarian invasion brought this prosperity to a close. St. Front preached Christianity here in the 4th century and over his tomb there was raised a monastery, which became the centre of the new town called Le Puy St. Front. The cite was pillaged by the Saracens about 731, and in 844 the Normans devastated both quarters. The new town soon began to rival the old city in importance, and it was not until 1240 that the attempts of the counts of Perigord and the bishops to infringe on their municipal privileges brought about a treaty of union. During the Hundred Years' War, Perigueux was twice attacked by the English, who took the cite in 1356; and the whole town was ceded to them by the Treaty of Bretigny, but returned to the French Crown in the reign of Charles V. The county passed by marriage into the hands of Anthony of Bourbon, father of Henry IV., and was converted by the latter into royal domain. During the Huguenot wars Perigueux was frequently a stronghold of the Calvinists, who in 1575 did great destruction there, and it also suffered during the troubles of the Fronde.
The town, standing on a height on the right bank of the Isle, is divided into three parts. On the slope of the hill is the mediaeval town; to the west is the modern town; to the south of the modern town is the old Roman town or cite. Three bridges connect Perigueux with the left bank of the Isle, where stood Vesunna, the capital of the Petrocorii. Hardly a trace of this old Gallic town remains, but not far off, on the Plateau de la Boissiere, the rampart of the old Roman camp can still be traced. On the right bank of the Isle, in the Roman city, there have been discovered some baths of the first or second century, supplied by an aque duct 4 m. long, which spanned the Isle. A circular building,
called the "Tower of Vesunna," stands at what was formerly the centre of the city. It is believed to have been originally the cella or main part of a temple, probably dedicated to the tutelary deities of Vesunna. The amphitheatre, now in ruins, had a diam eter of 1,312 ft., that of the arena being 87o ft.; and dates from the 3rd or even the 2nd century. The counts of Perigueux used it for their château, and lived in it from the 12th to the end of the 14th century. In 1644 it was given over by the town to the Order of the Visitation, and the sisters built their nunnery with stones from it. Of the ruins of the cite, the Château Barriere is an example of the fortified houses formerly common there. Two of its towers (third or fourth century) formed part of the forti fied enceinte ; the highest tower is of the tenth century; and the part now inhabited is of the I ith or i 2th century, and was formerly used as a burial chapel. The bulk of the château is of the 12th, and some of the windows of the i6th century.
The chief mediaeval building in the cite is the (I ith and 12th centuries) church of St. Etienne, once the cathedral; it has a fine carved wooden reredos of the 17th century and a tomb of a bishop of the 12th century. In the mediaeval town, known as Le Puy St.-Front, is the cathedral of St.-Front which, till its restoration in the 19th century, was of unique architectural value. Nearby are the remains of an old basilica of the 6th century, above which rises the unique Byzantine iith century belfry. It is composed of two massive cubes, placed the one above the other in retreat, with a circular colonnade surmounted by a dome. To the south-west of St. Front, the buildings of an old abbey (I ith to i6th century) surround a 13th century cloister. Of the fortifications of Le Puy St.-Front, the chief relic is the Tour Mataguerre (14th century).
Perigueux is the seat of a bishop, prefect and court of assizes, and has tribunals of first instance and of commerce and a board of trade-arbitrators. The trade of the town is in pigs, truffles, vegetables, brandy, poultry, pies known as pates de Perigord, and all kinds of preserved foods. There are quarries in the adjacent vicinity.