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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The house with beams of Cavarc, located at 59-62 rue Saint-Dizier, illustrates a constructive technique rare in France, which appeared between the 15th and 16th centuries. These houses, built by stacking square logs of wood, are concentrated in the North-Agenas, on the border of the Périgord, a region rich in forest resources. Their systematic discovery began in 1971 thanks to the work of François Fray, then of the Association des Amis du Pastourais, which lists 53 copies, mainly around the cantons of Villeréal and Castillonnès.

These constructions emerged in a post-war context of One Hundred Years (after 1453), where Agenas and Périgord, devastated by conflict and plague, were subject to repopulation policies. Two major migration waves (1472–85 and 1515–30) attract families from the Central Massif (Rouergue, Quercy, Auvergne) and the Poitou, benefiting from lands offered by the lords in exchange for their clearing and the construction of a house. The dendrochronological study confirms that most of these houses date from the last quarter of the 15th and early 16th century.

The name "stackhouse" was popularized by François Fray in the 1970s, inspired by Jules Momméja (1903), who compared these constructions to the Norwegian houses of Telemark. Seven of these houses, including that of Cavarc, are protected as Historical Monuments between 1991 and 1992 for their ethnological and archaeological interest. Their technique, similar to that of Canada or Savoy's coin-on-pieces, demonstrates know-how adapted to local resources and the need for rapid reconstruction after medieval crises.

The house of Cavarc, registered on 14 February 1991, belongs partly to the commune and to a private owner. Its state of conservation and its location in the Dropt Valley make it a key witness to this rural heritage, linked to the history of internal migration and vernacular techniques. The research also highlights their concentration along the river axes (Dropt, Tolzac), reflecting the dynamics of repopulation and economic exchanges of the modern era.

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