The Cathedral of St. Front only became the cathedral after the mutilation of St. Étienne by the Huguenots. It is a most remarkable building, in the form of a Greek cross, roofed with five huge domes. The similarity of the plan to that of St. Mark’s at Venice has suggested that it was copied from that building, with which it is generally regarded as contemporary, although a considerable conflict of opinion has taken place as to its exact age.
At the west end of the domical building there is a roofless structure consisting of three naves, and whether it is the earlier of the two still remains in doubt. Félix de Verneilh, a distinguished archæologist, holds that the domed building was begun in 984, and consecrated in 1047, and that the roofless church goes back as far as Merovingian times (fifth and sixth centuries); but latterly there has been a tendency to date the complete building between 1125 and 1150, and to regard the ruined structure as the one consecrated in 1047, and burnt in 1120.
The restoration has been so wholesale that, were it not for the domes and the impressiveness of the colossal square piers, the interior would be too bald and bare to be interesting. The arches are only slightly pointed, and this building is, perhaps, the birthplace of French Gothic. The tower is one of the very earliest, if not the only Byzantine campanile in France, while the apse is quite modern.
The Bishop’s offices are above the cloisters of the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries, and, since the demolition of 1903, are all that remains of the monastery. The site is now an open space, forming a broad terrace, which gives a delightful view of the river and the wooded hills, and to a town with so many narrow streets as this it must be a boon to the inhabitants.
A walk through the old streets of the episcopal town, especially the Rues Limogeaune and Aubergerie, reveals some fine domestic architecture of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and there are some old houses defended with machicolation on the quay by the Pont Vieux. The Tour Mataquerre, of the fourteenth century, is a part of the ramparts of the city.
The Roman Amphitheatre, dating back to the third century, is now planted with trees, and the space inside contains some Roman remains. The Counts of Périgueux made this amphitheatre their château in the twelfth century, and inhabited it till the end of the sixteenth century. In 1644 the town ceded it to the Visitandines, who despoiled it of its stones to build their convent.
St. Étienne, the former cathedral, is close to the amphitheatre. It belongs to the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and is surmounted by three domes and a tower analogous to St. Front.
The interior has three carved oak altar-screens of the seventeenth century; the largest one, formerly in St. Front, is the work of the Jesuit Laville, who took ten years over it. A richly sculptured tomb on the right on entering is that of Bishop Jean d’Asside, who died in 1169.
The Tour de Vésone is part of a Gallo-Roman temple dedicated to Vesuna, the tutelary goddess of the city. Some specimens of the red-and-green marble which formed the outer casing are preserved in the museum.
The Château Barrière has a Roman base. The highest tower, externally round, dates from the tenth century, while the body of the castle is late Gothic. Near the château is a Roman arch called the Porte Normande.