Tour de Vésone

Perigueux keeps track of Vésone, Gallo-Roman city founded by the Prétrocores around 16 year BC in the present capital of Périgord. The Tower of Vésone, listed in 1846 as “Monument Historique”, is the only vestige of the Roman temple dedicated to the goddess of the city.

Best-known landmark of the Ancient Perigueux, the tower of Vésone evokes the atmosphere of the birth of the Gallo-Roman city Vesunna. Although built in the first or second century, it was the setting of early peaceful relations between the invaders and the local tribes. This tower is the cella, which is the central sacred part only allowed to priests. It is a round tower, with an external diameter of 20 meters, a current height of 24 meters and more than two meters thick at the base of the wall, located in a public garden, the Jardin de Vésone. A wide gap of nearly nine meters rips its eastern side: the legend is that St. Front itself, the apostle of Perigord, has created the typical breach of the building with his stick.