Name - Chateau Barriere
Location - Perigueux
Department - Dordogne 24
State - ChateauRuin
Currently in ruin, the old Chateau Barriere occupies a strategic urban position, between the medieval center and the Gallo-Roman city.
The Chateau Barriere bears the name of a family of knights which built it on the bases of the ancient rampart. Very often altered, it has parts which belong to all the periods that it crossed, until that of the XVIth century when it was set fire to by the Protestants.
Today one can still observe the remainder of the Chateau as well as the vestiges of the main building refitted in the renaissance.
Some of the walls dating from the 3rd century accommodated several fortresses of the big aristocratic families (called the perigourdines). Only the Chateau Barriere survived. Nearby, the Normande door testifies to the permanence of the invasions in the last centuries of the first millennium.
The Chateau itself built in XIIIth century by the Family Barriere, this fortress played a crucial role during the One hundred Year war. The important vestiges of this castle show several phases of construction between XIIIth and XVIth centuries. still present : the donjon, chateau, an arched cave and a round tower. It is in this castle which was born the historian Wlgrin de Taillefer.
