Cabanes du Breuil
Cabanes du Breuil is a settlement of a good dozen stone huts (cabane = hut) made of dry stone in the French commune of Saint-André-d'Allas . It is located somewhat off the road from Sarlat-la-Canéda to Les Eyzies-de-Tayac-Sireuil , about 8 km northwest of Sarlat-la-Canéda, near Puymartin Castle , in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region , in the Dordogne department , in the former province of Périgord . These are rural workshops from the 19th century that belonged to the adjacent estate. The settlement is now an open-air museum . The stone huts have been a listed building since 1968 and have been classified as a "historic monument" since 1992.
history
The formerly early dating of the Cabanes as a Celtic construction method has been abandoned and today we see buildings dating back to post- medieval times, but which go back to much older traditions. The Cabanes of Breuil were first mentioned in writing in 1449. At that time they belonged to the Benedictines of Sarlat, but were no longer inhabited from that time.
With the advent of the iron processing industry in the 18th century, the smelters were inhabited again, as the smelting works of the "black Périgord" drew many workers to the area. The ruined stone huts have been renovated and are therefore still in good condition today. When the huts were still inhabited by people, the animals slept around the central fireplace on the ground floor and people slept on the upper floor.
description
The round huts are now part of a farm and are grouped around a central courtyard . Some of the round buildings stand individually, others are connected to "row houses". In the latter, the circular floor plans overlap so much that the huts move closer together. There the overlapping conical roofs are connected with saddles. The huts receive air and daylight through stone dormers built into the conical roofs .
The cabanes are used as storage rooms, storage rooms, stables for keeping cattle and workshops. In some workshop huts old equipment and tools are on display. The owner and farmer lives in a conventional residential building that is in the central courtyard.
construction
The Cabanes have circular floor plans with different diameters. The outer walls are 80 to 100 cm thick and made of mortar-free dry masonry . The flat ocher stones come from the nearby area. The stone roof rests on the 1.40–1.80 m high outer walls as a cantilever vault with a good 45 degree incline. The stone roof coverings of the conical roofs are approx. 110 cm thick at the level of the eaves, 50 to 70 cm in the middle and 100 cm again at the tip of the cone. The roof tiles protrude from the eaves so that the rainwater can drain off the outer wall.
These relatively primitive room vaults compared to the “real” domes / vaults , which have to be stacked on a falsework, are also called “false” or “false” domes / vaults in the history of building.
In the larger stone huts there is a beam of chestnut logs at the height of the eaves to create an upper floor .
Workshop fireplace
Quarry
material
The material for the huts comes from a small quarry that belongs to the village. Its top layer, 40 to 70 cm thick, was best suited for roofing. The stone slabs are wide and a maximum of 6 cm thick. The stones below were used for the outer walls. The layer of usable stones is approx. 1.00 m thick.
Awareness, possibility of viewing
In addition to postcards, the cinema and television have also made this square famous: it served as background decoration in the films " La Belle au bois dormant " ( Sleeping Beauty ), " Jacques le croquant ", " D'Artagnan " and " Les Misérables " (Eng. " The Legion of the Damned ").
You can visit the Cabanes du Breuil all year round (from November to March only by reservation).
The Cabanes of Breuil
The Cabanes of Breuil
The Cabanes of Breuil
The Cabanes of Breuil
Similar round buildings
Such round buildings with false vaults can be found all over southern Europe . They are called in the Provence Bories , Spain Cabanos on Sardinia nuraghi , in Apulia Trulli and in Périgord Cabanes. There are also examples in Northern Europe , such as the beehive huts in Ireland .
literature
- Julia Droste-Hennings, Thorsten Droste : France. The southwest. The landscapes between the Massif Central, Atlantic and Pyrenees. DuMont-Reiseverlag, Ostfildern 2007, ISBN 978-3-7701-6618-3 .
- A limited number of leaflets are available from the kiosk for viewing.
Web links
Coordinates: 44 ° 55 ′ 18.7 " N , 1 ° 7 ′ 34.4" E