Châteaux, mer et rivages

Celebrating its 30th anniversary, the Society of archaeology and history in Périgord (Les rencontres d’archéologie et d’histoire en Périgord) has put to sea. During centuries the sea was above all « the heroic and violent dream » of the Conquistadors, Barbarians, Vikings, Normans and other invaders, the English, the Spanish and the Ottomans. To face the danger, fortified castles, lighthouse castles, « sea-forts », lazarettos were built up, standing guard, defending and controlling the coast, repelling attacks and managing the risk of epidemies. But the sea is also a space of discovery and scientific adventures; a source of enrichment through fishing, trading and people exchanging. More recently it has become a place of vacation and pleasure, with « a view of the sea ». From port to port and from island to island, this book takes us on an architectural, military and political tour, both scholarly and picturesque, from the shores of the Atlantic to the shores of the Bosphorus. How could Le Périgord be involved in all these… sea adventures? This is the right phrase to describe the life of the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem, the cadets of so many old families in Périgord, who left their homes to conquer Rhodes then Malta where they put up extraordinary fortresses.