Allée couverte et alignement de menhirs indicateurs de Saint-André
MonumentHidden Treasure
Allée couverte et alignement de menhirs indicateurs de Saint-André, located in Plédéliac (Département 22), is a historic monument. The monument is currently closed to visitors.
Key facts
- Type
- autre
- Location
- Plédéliac, Département 22, Bretagne
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 48.4817, -2.4095
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00089395
At the heart of Brittany's origins, the covered alley and line of menhirs at Saint-André in Plédéliac make up a Neolithic megalithic complex of rare coherence, silent testimony to a building civilisation dating back five millennia.
History
A few leagues from Lamballe, in the bocage of the Côtes-d'Armor, the megalithic site of Saint-André unfurls its standing stones in an unspoilt rural landscape that seems to have changed little since the first Neolithic farmers transplanted their dead and their rites here. The site is made up of two complementary elements: a covered walkway, a collective burial chamber demarcated by large slabs of local sandstone, and an alignment of signposted menhirs which, in days gone by, might have guided processions and pilgrimages to this place of remembrance. What distinguishes the Saint-André site from the many megalithic monuments in Brittany is precisely this functional duality. The covered alleyway, probably oriented along a solar axis, served as a collective burial ground for several generations, housing the bones of dozens of individuals in a controlled architectural space. The associated alignment, made up of blocks set at regular intervals, suggests an organisation of the territory, a staging of the sacred in the landscape, characteristic of the agricultural societies of the Middle Armorican Neolithic. The visitor experience is marked by the sense of immediacy that megaliths provide: unlike castles or cathedrals, there is no complex architectural mediation between the visitor and the raw stone. We are faced with blocks that men have cut, transported and erected with no tools other than collective strength and mechanical intelligence. The moss that covers some of the orthostats and the golden lichens that colonise the surfaces add an organic patina that accentuates the age of the site. The hedgerows and rolling fields of Plédéliac's bocage setting envelop the monument in a gentle, intimate atmosphere, far removed from the crowds at the major Carnac sites. This is an invaluable advantage for anyone wishing to learn about Breton megalithism in a contemplative way, away from the tourist coaches, at the slow pace required for any genuine encounter with prehistory.
Architecture
The covered alleyway at Saint-André belongs to the best-defined architectural type of late Armorican megalithism: an elongated funerary gallery, delimited laterally by orthostats - large vertical slabs driven into the earth - and covered with horizontal tables forming an enclosed corridor. The chamber, which is generally more than eight to twelve metres long for the covered alleyways in Côtes-d'Armor, was originally entirely enclosed, with a pierced or removable entrance slab to allow successive burials. The materials used were local sandstone and shale, extracted from outcrops typical of the Armorican basement. The alignment of indicator menhirs is the second architectural feature of the site. Made up of monolithic blocks standing vertically, these menhirs vary in height, probably between one and three metres in their current state, although some may have subsided or broken over the millennia. Their linear arrangement, converging or facing the covered walkway, reflects a deliberate spatial intention: to visually and symbolically link the world of the living with that of the ancestors. From a technical point of view, the erection of these monoliths demonstrates a mastery of the levering, dragging and pit foundation techniques characteristic of the Armorican Neolithic. The absence of binders, gravity alone and the fact that they are embedded in the ground ensure the stability of the structures, making their persistence over more than four thousand years all the more remarkable in a terrain subject to the alternating climates of Atlantic Brittany.
Related Figures
Communautés néolithiques armoricaines (bâtisseurs, 4500-2500 av. J.-C.)Antiquaires bretons du XVIIIe siècle (premiers inventoriants)Membres de la Société d'Émulation des Côtes-du-Nord (XIXe siècle)Théophile de La Tour d'Auvergne (érudit celte, explorateur du patrimoine mégalithique breton)Agents des Monuments Historiques (arrêté de classement, 1970)
Tags
Nearby castles
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Allée couverte et alignement de menhirs indicateurs de Saint-André located?
Allée couverte et alignement de menhirs indicateurs de Saint-André is located in Plédéliac, Département 22 department, Bretagne region, France.
Is Allée couverte et alignement de menhirs indicateurs de Saint-André open to visitors?
Allée couverte et alignement de menhirs indicateurs de Saint-André is currently closed to visitors.
