Architecturally significant are the domed churches, Saint-Étienne-de-la-Cité and
Saint-Front. The origin and chronology of this distinctive type of church architecture are
controversial. Returning crusaders have been credited with the inspiration, and the former
cathedral of Saint-Étienne-de-la-Cité is usually considered the prototype.
Despite the loss of its western tower-porch and two domed western bays, Saint-
Étienne is striking for the purity and harmony of its simple geometric forms. The present
western bay is an original 11th-century construction; its broad pointed arches, supported
by massive piers, carry a hemispherical dome on pendentives. Blind arcades, once
surmounted by open passageways as in the eastern bay, relieve the severity of the nave
walls. The design of the elegant eastern bay, lit by a triplet of windows in each wall, dates
from the second quarter of the 12th century. After the Huguenot destruction of 1577, this
bay, with its high cupola, was rebuilt following the original plan. The structure,
nevertheless, remained truncated, and in 1669 the former monastic church of Saint-Front
became the cathedral of Périgueux.
Saint-Front, celebrated for the exotic profile of its domes and lanterns, was almost
entirely reconstructed by Abadie and Boeswillwald in the 19th century. The cathedral is
composed of two churches. To the west are the remains of the “old church” of Bishop
Frotaire (consecrated 1047), which had succeeded that of the 6th century built over the
tomb of St. Front. The spacious new domed church was largely built after the fire of
1120, although some have attempted to date its earliest bays to the 11th century. Greek-
cross in plan and surmounted by five domes, it was oriented toward the tomb of St. Front;
the beautiful bell tower, largely restored on the exterior but conserving much of its
interior configuration, marked the juncture of the two churches. The new church acquired
its eastern orientation with the addition of apsidioles, a 14th-century Gothic chapel, and
Abadie’s apse. The lapidary gallery of the Musée du Périgord contains capitals, corbels,
and decorative sculpture that survived the 19th-century restorations.
Jean M.French
[See also: GUESCLIN, BERTRAND DU; HUNDRED YEARS’ WAR;
ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE]
Secret, Jean. Périgord roman. La Pierre-qui-vire: Zodiaque, 1979.
——.“La restauration de Saint-Front au XIXe siècle.” Monuments historiques de la France, n.s. 2
(1956):145–59.
Soubeyran, Michel. “Catalogue raisonné des éléments de sculpture provenant de la cathédrale
Saint-Front de Périgueux et conserve au Musée du Périgord.” Bulletin de la Société Historique
et Archéologique du Périgord 94 (1967):166–200.
PERLESVAUS
. Dating from the early 13th century, perhaps from its first decade, Perlesvaus is a French
Arthurian prose romance that reworks the story of Perceval, with the hero renamed
Perlesvaus (explained as perd-les-vaus, or “lose the vales” of Camelot). The work, also
known as the Haut livre du Graal, is preserved in three manuscripts (Bodl. Lib., Hatton
The Encyclopedia 1355