House of the powerful Viscounty that bears the same name since the mid-9th century, Turenne is a village built on the slopes of a hill which dominates the top of his castle. This Vicomté for ten centuries, will be autonomous and sovereign act until the Middle Ages. It is a state within a state, which imposes its own rules, its own economy and its own development.
It is hard territory extends from the low current Corrèze (Argentat) to the gates of the Perigord in the west (Terrasson) and plateaus of the Causse du Quercy (Gramat). The Vicomte de Turenne have more than 100,000 inhabitants, spread over 111 parishes.

The town of Turenne retains many traces of its history. Witness the Caesar towers and Treasury castle, the old mansions of the fifteenth to seventeenth, adorned with turrets or watchtowers and simpler houses with roofs covered with slate… Four Visconti family were succeeded in Turenne. They have contributed, each in turn, that Turenne hold more or fewer rights and sovereignty towards the crown, by their acts of war, alliances and their descendants. Charles Godefroy will end the years of prosperity of the Vicomte de Turenne. The Viscount is sold to the Crown. The Viscomtins are now subject to the rules of the state, with the consequences that we know under the revolution.