Saint Laurent was born in the presence of a ford on the Gorre connecting two nodes prehistoric inland ridges. This feature has probably earned to be on the road when the Vandals in the early 5th century, the Barbarians have invaded the rich province of the Roman Empire what was Gaul. By the way, they destroyed the magnificent Gallo-Roman villas spread out on the sunny slopes of its hills.
The history of St. Lawrence had started much earlier, in Neolithic times, with the arrival of builders of megaliths, Liguria, Iberians and Celts joined the nation Gallic Lemovices.
After the appearance of Frankish kings, Saint-Laurent, like everyone Limousin, is buffeted between the Aquitaine and "Francie" between the Plantagenet and Capetian between French and English. Since the 13th century, its position in a border enclave Poitevin (the Vicomte de Rochechouart) within the Vicomte de Limoges, has obviously inflamed the situation of St. Lawrence.
In those days, remain mostly overlapped echoes of the Viscount of Limoges Aymard 5th and Richard Coeur de Lion to the castle and the "town" of Saint-Laurent, as well as conflicts between 8th Aimery Rochechouart and his brother - 6th brother Guy of Limoges during the annexation of St. Lawrence to the province of Poitou. But we know also the installation of a Benedictine priory in Beauvais, demonstrations of care Simon de Rochechouart his fief Laurentis, his hospital and leper, to the time of passage of pilgrims and merchants (late thirteenth - early 14th century).
The end of the Hundred Years War will offer Saint-Laurent a new kind of lord. The manor is out of the hands of local Viscounts and increased in those of royal officials. The first dynasty, the Bermondet, has endowed a new castle and got her King Charles the 9th right to hold a monthly show, which was a huge privilege.
From the reign of Henri IV, Saint-Laurent has flourished. The village, which had already filled the ditches of the castle, has built a fine High Street and a bridge crossed a door, both lookout and grant. Some of its citizens began their ascent to the nobility and have been building "mansions" in the heart of town and the surrounding fiefs. Today, we recognize them with their high ceilings and wide staircases.