Dordogne
Sarlat-la-Canéda
Golden stone of the Périgord
The highest density of historic monuments in Europe: 71 protected buildings, in a medieval and Renaissance town that has remained almost intact.
The town
Sarlat owes its survival to a lack of means, and then to a decision. Nineteenth-century industry passed it by: apart from the Traverse cut through in 1837, the town never had the money to replace the pale stone mansions its consular families built between the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries. In 1962, the Malraux Act made it one of the very first protected quarters in France. Seven monuments are told here, in an old town you can cross entirely on foot.
Read the history of Sarlat-la-CanédaThe collection
The monuments of Sarlat-la-Canéda
ListedPrivate mansion · XIVᵉ–XVIIᵉ s.
Hôtel Plamon
Gothic, 14th–17th centuries; pointed-arch bays and a wrought-iron Louis XIII balcony.
ListedReligious building · XIIᵉ–XVIIIᵉ s.
Cathédrale Saint-Sacerdos
A former abbey church made a cathedral in 1317, blending a 12th-century Romanesque bell tower with a Gothic nave completed in the 17th century.
ListedPrivate mansion · XVIᵉ s.
Maison de La Boétie
A Renaissance mansion built around 1520-1525, birthplace of the writer Étienne de La Boétie, the friend of Montaigne.
ListedReligious building · XIVᵉ–XVᵉ s.
Église Sainte-Marie
A Gothic church consecrated in 1507, transformed in 2001 by Jean Nouvel into a covered market with monumental steel doors.
ListedCivil building · XIVᵉ–XXᵉ s.
Palais épiscopal
Former palace of the bishops, succeeding the abbot's residence, later the town hall and then the tourist office.
RegisteredChâteau · XIVᵉ–XIXᵉ s.
Château de Campagnac
A Périgord château of the 14th–19th centuries, north-west of Sarlat, built by the Plamon family and Registered as a Monument historique (France's national heritage listing).
Civil building · XIXᵉ s.
Former Library
A 19th-century neoclassical house, bequeathed by Emmanuel Lasserre, which housed the municipal library of Sarlat from 1930 to 2024.
From one monument to the next
The monument trail
Plan your visit
Before you go
Direct TER line from Bordeaux, with Sarlat station a quarter of an hour's walk from the old town. By car, park on the ring road: the medieval town is walked, not driven.
Market on Wednesday and Saturday mornings, around the Sainte-Marie church, on the same spot for eight centuries. July and August are busy; spring and September give the lanes room to breathe.
The tourist office occupies the ground floor of the bishops' palace on rue Tourny, at the foot of the cathedral. The seven monuments are all within walking distance, no booking, at your own pace.