the Prehistory Welcome Center

The Prehistory Welcome Center, opening in July 2010, is dedicated to the discovery and knowledge of prehistory and the Vezere Valley. It will fulfill several functions for the general public: welcoming tourists and providing them with information on the subject of prehistory, the realization of learning and education programs in archaeology for school groups, providing a place for reading and studying through books and new technologies and the organization of cultural and scientific events and manifestations.

The location
The site of the Prehistory Welcome Center, in the village of Les Eyzies, extends from the rue du Moulin (historic entrance to the village) to the other side of RD 47 Périgueux-Sarlat. It is traversed by the Beune River, a tributary of the Vezere River (classed Natura 2000) that was canalized as a race for an ancient mill.
The site covers a total of 16,000 m². It includes parking areas, a landscaped park providing access to the Center over a long footbridge crossing the streams, and the building itself (120 m long and 3000 m² of surface area on two floors.
In 2007, a diagnostic archaeology operation was conducted on the site in by the Departmental Archaeology Service. This work revealed the remains of a water mill whose earliest archival documentation dates to 1661. The historic study of the “High Mill”, realized in the context of the diagnostic operation, retraces the general history of this structure, which played an important economic role in the village over many centuries.
To permit the construction of the Prehistory Welcome Center, the General Council of the Dordogne acquired the « Moulin Dufour » property from the commune of Les Eyzies in 2003. The plot was occupied by an ancient flour mill composed of industrial buildings and offices that had been unoccupied for several years before. They were demolished in 2007.


The architectural project
On this exceptional site, the architect Raphaël Voinchet (Cabinet W. Architectures in Toulouse) conceived a dynamic and innovative building that seems to blend with the cliff face, with its two discrete levels laid out at the foot of this striking natural backdrop. The building does not impose itself on the site, but simply inhabits it, thus respecting the natural environment.