Arena Garden A historic garden with playground and pond in Périgueux

Périgueux is the best known Roman city in Aquitaine.

Before the Roman conquest, the current department of Dordogne was occupied by the Celtic people of the Pétrucores or Petrocores.

When the Emperor Augustus created the province of Aquitaine around 16 BC, he divided it into 21 cities, including the City of the Petrucores (Civitas petrucoriorum) which was given a capital called Vésone (Vesunna in Latin) after a protective indigenous deity.

Vésone occupied 82 hectares of a meander on the right bank of the Isle. The urban planning and architecture of this new city were to express the Roman order and encourage the local population to adopt a new lifestyle. In the 1st century AD, it already had a forum and an amphitheater for 18,000 spectators.

The city seems to have been a vast construction site until at least the middle of the 2nd century, with in particular the construction of the large temple known today as the Tour de Vésone.

As in all of Gaul, public affairs were managed by notables of Gallic origin, who were quickly Romanized. In Vésone, all around the civic center, notable houses (domus) developed from the 1st century. Towards the end of the 3rd century, after a period of recession, the city tightened into a rampart . The monuments were dismantled stone by stone to be reused in the construction of this new monumental adornment. This was the beginning of another type of urban life.

In the 19th century, the site was converted into a public garden. Listed as a historical monument in 1840, it was remodeled in 1972. It includes a playground and a pond.

PARK OPENING HOURS:

• From October 1st to April 1st: from 7:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.
• From April 2 to September 30: from 7:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.