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Tower castle of the Rigale à Villetoureix en Dordogne

Dordogne

Tower castle of the Rigale

    84 La Rigale
    24600 Villetoureix
Crédit photo : Auteur inconnu - Sous licence Creative Commons

Timeline

Renaissance
Temps modernes
Révolution/Empire
XIXe siècle
Époque contemporaine
1600
1700
1800
1900
2000
1600s
Construction of housing
22 mai 1905
Historical Monument
Aujourd'hui
Aujourd'hui

Heritage classified

Roman tower of the castle of the Rigale : classification by decree of 22 May 1905

Key figures

Famille de Beaupoil de Saint-Aulaire - Seventeenth Century Lords Sponsors of the adjacent housing body.
Familles Abzac de Ladouze, Beauroyre, Roquemaurel - Owners (XIX-XX century) Responsible for modern amenities.
Famille de Castellane - Current owners Holder of the domain today.

Origin and history

The castle of the Rigale, located in Villetoureix in the Dordogne, derives from a cella (Gallo-Roman temple) built in the 2nd century. This round tower, 8 metres in diameter, similar to that of Vesone (Periguous), but of a smaller size, was originally a place of worship. Its architectural features include a small stone apparatus, brick cords at the top, and an eastern entrance marked by a breach. The square holes at the top once supported the beams of a peristyle now extinct.

In the 16th century, the tower was transformed into a dwelling, then enlarged in the 17th century by the addition of an adjacent rectangular house body, commissioned by the seigneurs of Beaupoil de Saint-Aaule. This house, covered with a broken roof, was initially equipped with a gallery, now disappeared. The renovations continued in the 19th and 20th centuries under the Abzac families of Ladouze, Beauroyre, and Roquemaurel, with the addition of elements such as a monumental staircase, skylights, and splinters on the bays of the tower.

The Gallo-Roman tower, classified as a Historical Monument by decree of 22 May 1905, remains the heart of the estate, today owned by the Castellane family. Its conical flat tile roof and ancient remains make it a rare testimony of Gallo-Roman religious architecture reinvested throughout the centuries. The site illustrates the superposition of times, mixing ancient heritage and medieval to modern transformations.

External links