visite2

On the plateau which towers aver the department of Rhône and the Ain river, between Lyon and Ambérieu, away from the main road, clinging on small hills a fortress church stands out with its massive shape against the landscape. A circle of trees, which hide the ramparts, isolate a small town in a calm atmosphere where old stones tell us a beautiful story....

This is the "Porte d'en Haut", through which visitors enter Pérouges. The high wall, reinforced at the corners with free stones, is made of boulders. It has a broken arch inside and is an integral part of the church. In the XVth century, "Les Pérougiens", the inhabitants of Pérouges, ploughmen, weavers, butchers, ironworkers, turned their church into a real fortress with walls dotted with loopholes. The church tower allows access to the covered way. Through the arch of this door, the visitors can see the "Maison Vernay" with its double mullion window on the first floor and its surbased arches on the ground floor.

The second door of Pérouges was almost totally destroyed during the 1468 siege. On the pediment, the following inscription can be reads :
"Perogia Perogiarum. Urbs imprenabilis.
Coquinati Delphinati Voluront prehendere illam
Ast non potuerunt
Attamen importaverunt portas, gonos, cum serris et degringolaverunt cum illis.
Biabolus importat illos!."

We can be translated by :

"Perouges of the Perougians,impregnable town, the Dauphiné scoundrels tried to take her but could not do so. However, they took the doors,the hinges and the locks and fell with them.
Let the Devil take them!"


The "Place du Tilleul" is one of the best-preserved elements of the "cité", with at the centre, the tree of freedom dating back to the XIXth century. It is situated at the end of the "Rue des Princes", near the "Ostellerie", a house dating from the XIIIth century (a listed history monument), and opposite there is the museum which shelters some looms, parchments, arms, tools, olds pieces of furniture, crockery, statues,... Its Gothic gallery would often be chosen by the local drapen merchants as trading place. In the "Rue des Contreforts", in the third house on the right , is kept the last "éccureil " type winepress of the village.

	The "Sundial" is located on the "Place du Tilleul" facing north. It is composed of several elements : - the coat of arms of Pérouges on the right hand side : the dragon in the red circle. - the coat of arms of "Dombes" (a region near Pérouges) on the left. The symbols of the zodiac signs are represented here. The Sundial was renovated a short time ago.

In this small lane, the pavement is made of round pebbles which make walking and riding difficult. Along the houses, sheltered by a porch roof, is what is called "le Haut du Pavé" : a narrow strip of lane where only the rich and wealthy would walk while in the middle of this road there ran a ditch which was flooded with mud and rubbish on rainy days and where the poor would walk. Walking on, there comes "la Rue des Rondes" and the "Place du Puit", with a 33 meter deep well). There stood the local oven and the house of the "Sergent de justice" which is well preserved with its round tower on ramparts.

On an altar, in the central nave of the "Eglise Forteresse", a wood warrior, wearing a helmet, is seem in the action of killing the dragon : Saint-Georges, the saint patron of Pérouges. So, this is Saint-Georges, who remains firmly seated on his horse in spite of the passing of time during which he lost an arm, a lance and a banner. On the last Sunday of April, the "Pérougiens" would stroll in procession into the lanes of the village. The village was filled with festoons, flowered sheets , to celebrate the virtues of their patron saint.

Located at the entrance of the village, next to the main door ("La Porte d'en Haut) there stands "The Fortress Church". It is in a remarkable condition of preservation, this building of the XVth century is a listed history monument. It was built before the siege of 1468 and destroyed by the residents of Pérouges themselves, in order to consolidate and rebuild their ramparts. Rebuild in 1469, it was finished 10 years later. During the revolution, vandals broke the statue of "Sainte Madeleine" which was situated in the Church.

The visitors can still find some frescoes on columns, some wood statues of the XIVth century (Saint Georges, Notre Dame de Gonfalon), chapels, tombs. On this picture can be seen on the second column on left and the fourth on right traces from the original frescoes.

Its name is "Rue des Princes " or "Rue du Prince". It is "S" shaped. It meets the church on the main square, and it 'goes as far as the "Rue du Tambour" on the other side of the square, and finally ends with "La Porte D'en Bas". Its name indicates that it was the main road of the village. An ancient plaque was affixed very high, almost as high as the second floor, and had as inscription the name of the street. But nowadays this inscription is missing. The "Rue des Princes", part of which is called "Rue Betuard", was the merchant street of the village. All the houses had, on the ground floor, some wide bays where the merchants would display their products. There were butchers, basket makers, sollicitors, chemists, gunsmiths...

One of most beautiful residences of Perouges, one which shelters at present the Ostellerie (restaurant) , was perhaps an "hostelry", when originally built. It is a sturdy two-storied house with the second floor overlapping on the first floor and the first floor on the ground floor. It's a corbelled house : vertical beams, horizontal beams and oblique beams encircle bricks and a simple and harmonious decoration draw on the main frontage. Situated at the end of the "Rue des Princes", on the "Place du Tilleul", the Ostellerie dates from the XIIIth century, and is a listed history monument.