Deuxième menhir de Mané-Meur
MonumentHidden Treasure
Deuxième menhir de Mané-Meur, located in Quiberon (Département 56), is a historic monument. The monument is currently closed to visitors.
Key facts
- Type
- autre
- Location
- Quiberon, Département 56, Bretagne
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 47.4831, -3.1319
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00091615
A granite sentinel that has stood guard over Quiberon since the Neolithic period, the Mané-Meur menhir has stood guard over the peninsula for over 5,000 years, a striking testimony to Breton megalithic civilisation.
History
In the heart of the Quiberon peninsula, in the Morbihan region which alone boasts one of the highest densities of megaliths in the world, the second menhir of Mané-Meur stands with that silent, imperious presence that only truly ancient monuments know how to impose. Erected during the Neolithic period, probably between the 5th and 3rd millennia BC, this granite monolith is part of the vast network of standing stones that dot the Breton coastline like so many punctuation marks in a text whose key we have lost. What makes the Mané-Meur site unique is precisely its plurality: the term "second menhir" reveals that it is part of a whole, a deliberate spatial organisation designed by the Neolithic builders. These architects, who had no metal tools, mastered the extraction, transport and placement of blocks weighing several tonnes with a precision that still commands the admiration of contemporary archaeologists. The coexistence of several menhirs on the Mané-Meur site suggests a complex ritual, astronomical or social function, perhaps linked to the marking of territory or seasonal ceremonies. The experience of visiting the site is striking in its very simplicity. There are no ramparts or roofs here: the Atlantic sky, often dramatic over Quiberon, serves as a canopy. The low-angled light of late autumn afternoons reveals the roughness of the granite, the bluish-grey grain characteristic of Armorican geological formations, and gives the stone an almost organic depth. It gives us a sense of what the people who lived around these places felt: a mixed feeling of sacredness and territorial belonging. The natural setting amplifies the emotion. The Quiberon peninsula, a narrow spit of land battered by the sea winds, offers panoramic views where open moorland and ocean meet on the horizon. A visit to this menhir combines the discovery of one of Europe's oldest heritage sites with a Breton landscape of rare intensity, a favourite with photographers and lovers of the great outdoors in all seasons.
Architecture
The second menhir at Mané-Meur belongs to the category of isolated or small grouped menhirs, the most widespread form of Breton megalithism after the covered walkways and corridor cairns. It's a vertical monolith - a block of rough rock set into the ground with no apparent work other than extraction and transportation - in accordance with the founding principle of this architecture, which requires no mortar and no skilful cutting. The material is Armorican granite, a magmatic rock abundant in the subsoil of the Quiberon peninsula, recognisable by its grainy texture combining light-coloured feldspar, translucent quartz and dark mica. Its resistance to the Atlantic weather partly explains its survival over the millennia. Its morphology is that of a squat block with an irregular top, slightly tapered in line with the common practice of medium-sized Morbihan menhirs. With no polishing or visible engraving documented - unlike some of the ornate menhirs in the Gavrinis corridor or on the Table des Marchands - its aesthetic power lies entirely in its relationship with space: the deliberate verticality of the shaft, its anchorage in the ground and the shadow it casts over the surrounding moorland. These characteristics link it to the canons of Atlantic megalithism as it spread from Ireland to the Iberian peninsula, with its Armorican specificities in terms of geology and topographical location. The designation "second menhir" implies the proximity of at least one other monolith on the Mané-Meur site, forming an ensemble whose spatial organisation constitutes an architectural element in its own right. The spacing, alignment and relative arrangement of the stones reveal an intention that prehistorians are trying to decipher: solar or lunar orientation, marking ritual paths, marking territorial boundaries.
Related Figures
Populations néolithiques de la presqu'île de Quiberon (bâtisseurs anonymes, ~4000-2500 av. J.-C.)Zacharie Le Rouzic (archéologue et conservateur du musée de Carnac, pionnier de la préhistoire bretonne, XIXe-XXe siècle)Alexandre Bertrand (fondateur du musée des Antiquités nationales, promoteur de la protection des mégalithes bretons au XIXe siècle)Prosper Mérimée (inspecteur général des Monuments Historiques, initiateur des premières campagnes de recensement du patrimoine breton dès 1836)
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Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Deuxième menhir de Mané-Meur located?
Deuxième menhir de Mané-Meur is located in Quiberon, Département 56 department, Bretagne region, France.
Is Deuxième menhir de Mané-Meur open to visitors?
Deuxième menhir de Mané-Meur is currently closed to visitors.