GALLIA ROMANA

Database of texts and images
Of Gallo-Roman antiquities (15th-17th centuries)

Notice

Ville Périgueux (Dordogne, 24)
Subject(s) Vésone Tower
 
Author(s) Zinzerling, Just
  Dutch scholar (1590-1618)
Resource type Printed book
Date 1616
Inscription
References Zinzerling 1616, p. 168
Bibliography Bernard 1859, pp. 1-14 ; Lauffray 1990 ; Lemerle 2005, pp. 32-33, 106
Remarks Zinzerling stayed in France from 1612 to 1616
Transcription 

« Hau procul inde abest turris antiquum VESUNÆ, nomen in vocabulo Vusonne aut Vyzonne retinens. Rotunda ea est & ampla, muro in crassitiem 7. circiter pedum, in altitudinem centum. Clavis ferreis exteriùs armata, interiùs cemento durissimo, ex calce & lapide coctili facto suffulta non janua aditum, non fenestris lumen admisit. Dubium inde natum, cui usui fuerit. Accessus subterraneus per duas cryptas in eam inventus est, & creditur sacellum fuisse Veneris dicatum ».
= “Not far from here is an ancient tower, known locally as the 'Visonne Tower'. It is round and large, with very thick walls, 7 feet around and 100 high. On the outside, it is armed with iron nails and the inside is covered with a very hard cement made of lime and stone; it has no doors to enter by and there are no windows to admit light. What it was or what it was used for is uncertain, but an underground entrance by way of two crypts has been discovered and some believe it was built as a shrine dedicated to Venus.”