Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

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.

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