page_title: Tower of Vesunna
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Tower of Vesunna / History
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Panneau représentant saint Front face au dragon de la tour de Vésone, retable de l'église Saint-Étienne-de-la-Cité, Périgueux, Dordogne, France.
context_page_description: The Tower of Vesunna is the vestige of a Gallo-Roman fanum dedicated to Vesunna, a tutelary goddess of the Petrocorii. The sanctuary was built in the 1st or 2nd century. Vesunna was the Gallo-Roman name for Périgueux, in the Dordogne department, in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region.
context_section_description: The fanum is thought to have been constructed in the 2nd century or perhaps at the end of the 1st.
  According to legend, Saint Front made the edifice's breach by driving out demons taking refuge in the tower with his staff. In reality, it was the result of removing large blocks that formed the entryway, causing the collapse of the portion above.
  The first excavations inside the tower were undertaken by Msgr. Machéco de Prémeaux. They were halted in 1751 following a workers' panic. They were resumed by the Count de Taillefer and Joseph de Mourcin in 1820, inside and outside the tower. The excavations discovered the base of the circular wall that surrounds the tower. They recognized that the tower was the cella of a temple. This two-meter thick wall is 4.55 m from the exterior façade of the tower. Count de Taillefer assumed that it supported a peristyle (ambulatory), and proposed a reconstruction of the temple.
  In 1833, the site, property of Count Wlgrin de Taillefer, was ceded at his death to the city of Périgueux. In 1846, the tower was added to the Monument historique registry.
  The construction of the Perigueux – Brive railway line, put into service in 1860, and the development of neighboring streets led to the destruction of the remains of the vast enclosure that protected the temple.
  In 1894, the city of Périgueux acquired the garden surrounding the tower to install an archaeological park. It had excavations carried out which confirmed the discoveries of the Count of Taillefer: A large block construction interrupting the circular wall on the opposite side from the breach, connected to a vast set of buildings to the West of the temple. The interior of the tower was cleared to the level of the old foundation. It was during the excavations carried out by Charles Durand from 1906–1909 that the ambulatory of the temple was cleared along with its galleries and peristyle through which the entrance to the courtyard of the temple was made.
caption: Saint Front confronting a dragon at the Tower of Vesunna (from a panel of the altarpiece at Saint-Etienne-de-la-Cité church).
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