Cabane en pierre sèche n° 27
MonumentHidden Treasure
Nestling in the vineyards of Badefols-sur-Dordogne, this dry-stone hut with its conical slate roof embodies the ingenuity of Périgord farmers. An authentic testimony to 19th-century winegrowing life.
History
In the heart of the Périgord Pourpre region, in the former wine-growing area of Badefols-sur-Dordogne, dry-stone hut no. 27 stands with the quiet discretion of those who have stood the test of time without trying to impress. A small rural structure with a perfectly circular floor plan, it belongs to the family of vernacular buildings that the farmers of the Périgord built with their own hands, without mortar, without an architect, using only the intelligence of a gesture passed down from generation to generation. What strikes you straight away is the coherence of the whole: the hut doesn't try to be beautiful, and yet it is. Its small squared rubble stones fit together with almost mathematical precision, supporting a conical roof covered with lauzes - the fine limestone slabs that have topped Périgord buildings for generations. At the top, a truncated cone-shaped stone crowns the whole like the end of a well-constructed sentence, the ultimate protection against water infiltration. The experience of visiting is intimate and almost tactile. The door, which faces south to catch the heat, is topped by a monolithic lintel; the wooden casement that closes it still evokes the gesture of the winegrower closing the midday shelter behind him. Inside, the wooden floor - which is still there today - conceals the vaulted structure, creating a suspended attic in which it is easy to imagine tools being stored and harvest baskets being stacked. The floor of the hut, about sixty centimetres lower than the meadow above, provides a welcome natural coolness on summer afternoons. It was here that the winegrower, the donkey and sometimes the horse found a common refuge from the rain or the heatwave. It's a functional promiscuity, devoid of any romanticism, but one that says everything about rural life in days gone by. Now listed as a Monument Historique since 1991, this hut is much more than a folkloric curiosity: it is a living fragment of a bygone agricultural civilisation, to be discovered on a walk through the hillsides of the Dordogne, between vineyards and plum trees.
Architecture
Hut no. 27 at Badefols-sur-Dordogne is a particularly well-preserved example of the circular dry-stone architecture typical of the Périgord region. Its plan is perfectly round, with an internal diameter of around three metres - enough to house a few people and a beast of burden, without wasting a single stone. The slightly sloping layout, with the interior floor sunk some sixty centimetres below the upper meadow, provides remarkable natural thermal regulation: cool in summer and relatively protected from the cold in winter. The load-bearing walls are made of small, carefully squared limestone rubble, assembled without binders using the dry-stone technique, which relies on gravity alone and the precision of the fittings. This technique, which requires an intuitive knowledge of balances and loads, was mastered by peasant builders trained on the job from generation to generation. The door, which faces south to benefit from maximum sunlight, is topped by a monolithic lintel made of local limestone and closed by a wooden casement. An east-facing window ventilates the upper attic, which also has a casement. The roof is the most spectacular feature of the building: a conical roof made of lauzes - thin slabs of split lacustrine limestone - arranged in concentric rows that narrow towards the top. The interior vault, concealed by a wooden floor creating an attic level, is built using the principle of a false dome by corbelling, with each row of stones protruding slightly over the previous one until the top is closed. The top is crowned by a truncated cone-shaped stone, the key piece ensuring the final watertightness of the structure and a recognisable signature of these Périgord huts.
Related Figures
Paysans viticulteurs de Badefols-sur-Dordogne (XIXe siècle) — constructeurs et utilisateurs anonymes de la cabaneMaîtres bâtisseurs en pierre sèche du Périgord — artisans ruraux transmetteurs du savoir-faire vernaculaireInspecteurs des Monuments Historiques de la Dordogne — responsables de l'inscription patrimoniale de 1991Ethnographes et chercheurs du CNRS — documentalistes du patrimoine rural périgourdin dans les années 1970-1990
