Allée couverte dite Ros-Vras
MonumentHidden Treasure
Allée couverte dite Ros-Vras, located in Landebaëron (Département 22), is a historic monument. The monument is currently closed to visitors.
Key facts
- Type
- autre
- Location
- Landebaëron, Département 22, Bretagne
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 48.6399, -3.2044
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00089238
The Neolithic covered alley at Ros-Vras: a 5,000-year-old funerary corridor nestling in the Costarmorican bocage, the silent guardian of the first Armorican farmers.
History
Lost in the lush green bocage of the Côtes-d'Armor region, the covered walkway at Ros-Vras is one of those monuments that you don't look for, but are moved to discover: a raw stone architecture emerging from the bare grass, indifferent to the centuries that preceded and followed it. Built in the Neolithic period, probably between 3500 and 2500 BC, it belongs to the large family of Armorican megaliths that make Brittany one of Europe's richest areas for prehistoric monuments. What sets Ros-Vras apart from the mass of anonymous mounds is the quality of its conservation and its place in a landscape that has not lost its wild character. The massive, dark slabs of local granite form a corridor carefully oriented by builders whose mastery of stone and astronomy never ceases to fascinate archaeologists. Here, the raw power of the material contrasts with the geometric precision of the layout: nothing is left to chance. To visit Ros-Vras is to agree to slow down. You have to linger, walk along its sides, observe the way the light glides over the orthostats at different times of the day. The interior of the corridor, even if only partially accessible, conveys that rare feeling of a space designed for eternity - not for the living, but for their dead and their gods. The natural setting enhances the experience: the hedgerows, bracken-covered embankments and centuries-old oak trees around the site create a setting not found in the open landscapes of the great megalithic moors of Morbihan. Ros-Vras is a monument to intimacy, to a silent encounter with time.
Architecture
The covered alleyway at Ros-Vras has the typical structure of this type of Armorican megalithic monument: an elongated corridor formed by two rows of orthostats - slabs standing vertically - on which rest horizontal covering tables known as ceiling slabs or capitals. The whole structure recreates a narrow, low interior space, oriented along a carefully calculated axis, probably linked to the rising and setting of the sun at equinoxes and solstices. The local granite, the dominant material in megalithic constructions in the Côtes-d'Armor region, gives the building its characteristic grey-blue hue and exceptional durability. The dimensions of the aisle are in line with regional standards: an internal length of between 8 and 15 metres and a width of 1.50 to 2 metres, with a ceiling height that barely allows an adult to walk around bent over. This narrowness is not a design flaw but an intention: the covered alleyway is not a living space or even a collective ceremony, but a vault designed to receive the remains of the deceased in a confined space, symbolically an intermediary between the world of the living and that of the ancestors. The absence of any visible engraved decoration distinguishes Ros-Vras from the great ornate monuments of Morbihan or Finistère, but this does not rule out the presence of signs now erased by erosion. The originality of the site lies more in its remarkable integration into the landscape and the state of preservation of its structural apparatus, with several slabs still in their original position.
Related Figures
Les bâtisseurs néolithiques anonymes de la péninsule armoricaine (vers 3500-2500 av. J.-C.)Les membres de la communauté agricole locale inhumés dans le couloir funéraireLes antiquaires bretons du XIXe siècle ayant contribué au recensement des mégalithes des Côtes-du-NordLes inspecteurs des Monuments Historiques ayant instruit le dossier de classement (1956)
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Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Allée couverte dite Ros-Vras located?
Allée couverte dite Ros-Vras is located in Landebaëron, Département 22 department, Bretagne region, France.
Is Allée couverte dite Ros-Vras open to visitors?
Allée couverte dite Ros-Vras is currently closed to visitors.