Libourne is a royal bastide, born in 1270 at the instigation of King Henry III of England. The Knight Sir Roger de Leyburn, newly promoted to the honorary rank of King's Lieutenant, was responsible for its construction in place of the former Gallo-Roman port of Condatis. He left her his name.
Over the centuries, Leybourn Frenchified to become Libourne. Located at the confluence of the Isle and the Dordogne, Libourne has the particularity of being the first maritime navigation port on the Dordogne almost 100 km inland!
This situation, unique in the world, favored its exchanges with the outside world and the development of a flourishing trade, of which wine was king. It was one of the most prosperous bastides in Aquitaine.
Born from a confluence, it itself became a confluence: of rivers, lands, languages and people.
The wine trade gave the Libournaise economy its letters of nobility in the Middle Ages. In the XNUMXth century and at the beginning of the XNUMXth century, the arrival of traders from Corrèze gave new impetus to trade related to the precious nectar.
For reasons of ease of loading and unloading the barrels, they decided to settle along the quays of Priourat which remains today the emblem of the Libournais trade. Its exceptional geographical location gives it a strategic location on the Dordogne for river tourism, welcoming tens of thousands of cruise passengers from all over the world every year. Libourne is also the vines in town! It is undoubtedly the only urban area in the world with two prestigious appellations: Pomerol and Saint-Emilion.
