Dolmen dit des Louettes, de Bellesort ou de Fontaine
MonumentHidden Treasure
Dolmen dit des Louettes, de Bellesort ou de Fontaine, located in Fréteval (Loir-et-Cher), is a historic monument. The monument is currently closed to visitors.
Key facts
- Type
- autre
- Location
- Fréteval, Loir-et-Cher, Centre-Val de Loire
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 47.8876, 1.1802
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00098445
A Neolithic vestige with three mysterious names, the sandstone slabs of the Louettes dolmen stand in the heart of the Loir-et-Cher region, a striking reminder of a humanity that has been building for over 5,000 years.
© Wikimedia Commons / Wikipedia
History
Nestling in the gently rolling Vendomois hedgerows at Fréteval, the dolmen known as Les Louettes - also known as Bellesort or Fontaine - is one of the few preserved megalithic monuments in the Loir-et-Cher département. The fact that it has been given three different names, reflecting the successive popular uses that have been made of it over the centuries, is in itself a testament to the profound influence that this monument has had on the imagination of the generations that have lived alongside it. The dolmen stands out for its architectural configuration, which is typical of Neolithic funerary constructions in the Paris Basin and the Middle Loire: an enclosed chamber made up of large orthostats planted vertically, topped by a covering table, the mass of which still impresses contemporary observers. The sober minerality of the whole contrasts with the surrounding vegetation, creating a silence that is unique to places steeped in a memory dating back thousands of years. A visit to this dolmen is a radically different experience from that offered by the nearby châteaux of the Loire. Here, there are no Renaissance decorations or French-style flowerbeds: just the permanence of the stone, the low-angled morning light revealing the rough textures of the sandstone, and the dizzying awareness of being face to face with one of the first intentional architectures that mankind has ever erected on this soil. The rural setting of Fréteval, a modest village in the north of the Loir-et-Cher department nestling on the banks of the Loir, amplifies this feeling of timeless isolation. The monument, accessible on foot from the village, is set in a landscape of hedged farmland and wet meadows typical of the Vendomois region, which has not been altered by urban development. Photographers and lovers of prehistoric heritage will find it a richly visual subject, particularly at dawn or in the late afternoon.
Architecture
The Louettes dolmen has the classic morphology of the simple dolmens of the northern Loire: a polygonal or sub-rectangular burial chamber made up of several vertical slabs of local sandstone, the orthostates, solidly anchored in the ground. These uprights support a covering slab - the table - whose weight, which can reach several tonnes in comparable regional specimens, testifies to the remarkable technical skill of builders who had no metal tools. The materials used were typically extracted from local Vendomois geological outcrops, rich in sandstone and silicified limestone. The surfaces of the slabs, which have been exposed to the elements for thousands of years, generally have characteristic lichenic patinas - silver-grey, ochre, dark green - which accentuate the monumental aspect and temporal charge of the whole. The absence of engraved decoration, which is common in the dolmens of the Centre region as opposed to those of Brittany or the Rhine Basin, lends the monument a formal austerity that reinforces its visual impact. The chamber must originally have been accessible via an entrance between two orthostats, which may have been condemned at a later date or is now partially collapsed. Some comparable dolmens in the Loir-et-Cher region have traces of an earthen or dry-stone mound that surrounded the structure; if such a mound existed at Fréteval, it has long since been eroded or levelled by farming activities, leaving the megalithic chamber exposed in the landscape.
Related Figures
Populations néolithiques du Vendomois (Ve-IIIe millénaire av. J.-C.) — bâtisseurs et utilisateurs du monumentÉrudits antiquaires du XIXe siècle — premiers recenseurs et descripteurs du dolmen dans les inventaires régionauxInspecteurs des Monuments Historiques (1979) — acteurs du classement protecteur du monument
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Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Dolmen dit des Louettes, de Bellesort ou de Fontaine located?
Dolmen dit des Louettes, de Bellesort ou de Fontaine is located in Fréteval, Loir-et-Cher department, Centre-Val de Loire region, France.
Is Dolmen dit des Louettes, de Bellesort ou de Fontaine open to visitors?
Dolmen dit des Louettes, de Bellesort ou de Fontaine is currently closed to visitors.