John Reps Bastides Collection

Domme

Domme was planned on a site atop a high, rocky promontory, one side of which drops almost vertically to the Dordogne River far below. In 1281 Simon de Melun, a royal senechal, bought the eastern end of the ridge on behalf of King Philippe III, and under his direction surveyors laid out a grid of streets with the marketplace and church site placed on flat land near the edge of the cliff. East-west streets are generally level or gently sloping as they follow the contours, but the streets crossing these and leading south from the central blocks slope sharply downward. More