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Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Vesunna Museum was born from the discovery in 1959 of the remains of a Gallo-Roman domus near the Vésone Tower in Périgueux. The excavations, carried out between 1960 and 1995, revealed a rich urban residence of the 1st century AD, filled in the 2nd century, with private baths, triclinium and garden. Ranked a historic monument in 1963, the domus became the heart of an ambitious museum project, carried by the municipality in the 1990s.

The museum was designed by Jean Nouvel in 1993, with the challenge of preserving the remains while making them accessible. Inaugurated in 2003, the building is characterized by an umbrella roof supported by 14 pillars, minimizing impact on the ground. The museum tour, organised around a century-old oak, plunges visitors into the daily life of the Petrocores, the Gaulish people of Dordogne, through objects, frescoes and models that reconstruct the ancient city.

The collections come from the excavations of Périgueux and Dordogne, including elements of the fourth century rampart, funeral steles, and domestic objects (wood pump, marine frescoes). The museum showcases Vesone's domus through a 1/50 scale model and thematic showcases (religion, trade, crafts). Labeled "Tourism and Disability" in 2013 and "Remarkable Contemporary Architecture" in 2020, it attracts 36,000 visitors annually (2022).

The history of the site dates back to the first archaeological collections gathered in the 19th century by the Count of Taillefer, published in 1821-1826. These funds, enriched by modern excavations (1960-1996), are now owned by the City of Périgueux, supplemented by state deposits and the HLM Municipal Office. The museum is part of a heritage complex including the Tower of Vesone, symbol of the ancient city.

The architectural bias of Jean Nouvel, combining transparency (glazed parois) and discretion (landscape integration), allows an immersive reading of the remains. The concrete "heavy wall", 90 metres long, serves as a support for the limestone blocks of the rampart, while the mezzanines expose the public life of the Petrocores. The museum, backed by a wooded garden, offers a "window open to the past", as illustrated by its inauguration by Xavier Darcos, then Deputy Mayor of Culture.

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