# Sarlat-la-Canéda

Golden stone of the Périgord

- **Region**: Dordogne
- **Coordinates**: 44.8896, 1.2167

The highest density of historic monuments in Europe: 71 protected buildings, in a medieval and Renaissance town that has remained almost intact.

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.

## Figures

- **7** monuments cared for by OPUS
- **XVIᵉ** Renaissance golden age
- **71** historic monuments
- **Dordogne** Périgord Noir

## Monuments

- **[Hôtel Plamon](https://opusheritage.com/en/villes/sarlat-la-caneda/hotel-plamon)** Gothic, 14th–17th centuries; pointed-arch bays and a wrought-iron Louis XIII balcony.
- **[Cathédrale Saint-Sacerdos](https://opusheritage.com/en/villes/sarlat-la-caneda/cathedrale-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.
- **[Maison de La Boétie](https://opusheritage.com/en/villes/sarlat-la-caneda/maison-de-la-boetie)** A Renaissance mansion built around 1520-1525, birthplace of the writer Étienne de La Boétie, the friend of Montaigne.
- **[Église Sainte-Marie](https://opusheritage.com/en/villes/sarlat-la-caneda/eglise-sainte-marie)** A Gothic church consecrated in 1507, transformed in 2001 by Jean Nouvel into a covered market with monumental steel doors.
- **[Palais épiscopal](https://opusheritage.com/en/villes/sarlat-la-caneda/palais-episcopal)** Former palace of the bishops, succeeding the abbot's residence, later the town hall and then the tourist office.
- **[Château de Campagnac](https://opusheritage.com/en/villes/sarlat-la-caneda/chateau-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).
- **[Former Library](https://opusheritage.com/en/villes/sarlat-la-caneda/ancienne-bibliotheque)** A 19th-century neoclassical house, bequeathed by Emmanuel Lasserre, which housed the municipal library of Sarlat from 1930 to 2024.

## Before you go

- **Getting there** 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.
- **When to come** 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.
- **On site** 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.

## Links

- Full page: https://opusheritage.com/en/villes/sarlat-la-caneda

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Source: OPUS Heritage, https://opusheritage.com/en/villes/sarlat-la-caneda. Content published by the town.