Allée couverte de Ty-ar-c'horriket
MonumentHidden Treasure
Allée couverte de Ty-ar-c'horriket, located in Beuzec-Cap-Sizun (Département 29), is a historic monument. The monument is currently closed to visitors.
Key facts
- Type
- autre
- Location
- Beuzec-Cap-Sizun, Département 29, Bretagne
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 48.0833, -4.4546
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00089834
Aux confins du Cap Sizun, cette allée couverte néolithique dissimulée dans le bocage finistérien dévoile des dalles de granite vieilles de plus de 5 000 ans, témoignage silencieux des premiers bâtisseurs de Bretagne.
History
Perched on the Cap Sizun peninsula at the western tip of Finistère, the covered alleyway at Ty-ar-c'horriket is one of a constellation of megalithic monuments that make Brittany one of the densest prehistoric burial grounds in Europe. Its evocative and mysterious Breton name literally means "the house of the korrigans", the prankster goblins of Armorican folklore that popular tradition has long associated with the old stones standing in the countryside. The building is in the classic form of an Armorican covered alleyway: an elongated sepulchral corridor, demarcated by large, carefully erected orthostats of local granite, topped with massive roof slabs forming a monolithic ceiling. This apparently simple architecture of rough stone actually testifies to a remarkable technical mastery and social organisation for Neolithic populations whose tools were limited to stone, bone and wood. To visit Ty-ar-c'horriket is to immerse yourself in a dizzying time. The low-angled morning light, often seen under the often turbulent Finistère skies, reveals with particular acuity the grainy surfaces of the granite, the joints between the slabs, and the atmosphere of contemplation that the builders were able to etch in stone for all eternity. Geology buffs will appreciate the quality of the local granite, whose bluish-grey tones blend perfectly with the surrounding landscape. The hedged farmland and Atlantic environment of Cap Sizun give the site a character that is both wild and intimate. Nearby are the spectacular moors and cliffs of the Pointe du Raz, setting Ty-ar-c'horriket apart from the rest of its natural and historic surroundings. Listed as a Historic Monument since 1924, Ty-ar-c'horriket remains one of the least visited - and therefore most authentic - examples of Finistère megalithism.
Architecture
The covered alleyway at Ty-ar-c'horriket corresponds to the morphological canons of megalithic burials on the Armorican Atlantic coast. It consists of an elongated chamber - the alleyway itself - made up of a double row of vertical granite slabs known as orthostats, generally between 1.20 and 1.80 metres high for this type of monument in Finistère. These lateral uprights support a set of horizontal cover slabs, the tables, whose considerable weight ensures the structural cohesion of the whole without the use of any mortar or binder. The granite used is from the local Cap Sizun massif, a very hard eruptive rock whose blocks, probably quarried from a short distance away, were moved and laid using techniques combining the use of wooden levers, rollers, plant fibre ropes and a large workforce. The orientation of the alleyway probably follows an east-west axis, a common feature of Neolithic Breton funerary monuments and perhaps linked to astronomical or symbolic considerations. The entrance to the alley was probably originally closed by a bedside slab or a sealing device that allowed successive openings for burials. Some comparable monuments in Finistère also feature a perforated slab at the entrance, known as a 'porthole', the function of which - the passage of souls or the handling of bones - remains debated among prehistorians. The whole structure was certainly built on a mound of earth and stones, most of which has now disappeared, giving the monument its characteristic tumuli silhouette in the Neolithic landscape.
Related Figures
Communautés néolithiques du Cap Sizun (bâtisseurs anonymes, vers 3500-2500 av. J.-C.)Prosper Mérimée (inspecteur général des Monuments Historiques, initiateur de la politique nationale de protection des mégalithes au XIXe siècle)Théophile Malo Corret de la Tour d'Auvergne (natif du Finistère, premier à s'intéresser aux antiquités celtiques et bretonnes au tournant du XVIIIe siècle)Paul du Châtellier (archéologue finistérien, XIXe-XXe siècle, grand inventorieur des mégalithes du Finistère)Zacharie Le Rouzic (archéologue breton, spécialiste du mégalithisme armoricain, fouilles de référence au début du XXe siècle)
Tags
Nearby castles
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Allée couverte de Ty-ar-c'horriket located?
Allée couverte de Ty-ar-c'horriket is located in Beuzec-Cap-Sizun, Département 29 department, Bretagne region, France.
Is Allée couverte de Ty-ar-c'horriket open to visitors?
Allée couverte de Ty-ar-c'horriket is currently closed to visitors.
