BRANTOME  , a

town of south-western France, in the department of Dordogne, 20 M . N. by W. of Perigueux by steam-tramway . Pop . (1906) 1230 . The town is built, in great part, on an island in the river Dronne . It is well known for the remains of an abbey founded by Charlemagne about 770 and afterwards destroyed by the Normans . The oldest existing portion is a square tower dating from the 1th century, built upon a rock beside the church which it overlooks . It communicates by a staircase with the church, a rectangular building partly Romanesque, partly Gothic, to the west of which are the remains of a cloister . The abbey buildings date from the 18th century, and now serve as hotel-de-ville, magistrature and schools . Caves in the neighbouring rocks were inhabited by the monks before the building of the abbey; one of them, used as an oratory, contains curious carvings, representing the Last Judgment and the Crucifixion . In the middle of the 16th century Pierre de Bourdeille came into possession of the abbey, from which he took the 'name of Brantome . Brantome has some old houses and a church of the 15th century, which was once fortified and is now used as a market .

Truffles are the

chief article of commerce; and there are quarries of freestone in the neighbourhood . The dolmen which is known as Pierre-Levee, to the east of the town, is the most remarkable in Perigord .