Dolmen sous cairn dit de la pointe de Bilgroix
MonumentHidden Treasure
Dolmen sous cairn dit de la pointe de Bilgroix, located in Arzon (Département 56), is a historic monument. The monument is currently closed to visitors.
Key facts
- Type
- autre
- Location
- Arzon, Département 56, Bretagne
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 47.5560, -2.9138
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00090989
Nestling on the Rhuys peninsula, the Bilgroix dolmen under a cairn is a Neolithic jewel from Morbihan: a funerary monument with a covered chamber buried under a dry stone mound, facing the Gulf of Morbihan.
History
At the end of the Rhuys peninsula, where the land of the Armorican fades into the blue waters of the Gulf of Morbihan, stands one of the most discreet and striking reminders of the Neolithic settlement of southern Brittany: the dolmen beneath the cairn at Pointe de Bilgroix. Buried beneath its mantle of stacked stones - the galgal - this collective funerary monument defies the millennia in an almost solemn silence, just a few strides from the shore. What makes Bilgroix truly unique is the rare combination of a chambered dolmen and a preserved cairn, i.e. a dry stone envelope that covers and protects the megalithic structure inside. While most of the Neolithic burial sites in Morbihan have seen their burial mounds erode or disappear over the centuries, the Bilgroix burial mound still has a recognisable silhouette, making it possible to grasp at a glance the original intention of the builders: to mark out in the coastal landscape a place of remembrance and passage to the afterlife. The visitor experience is as much about the monument itself as it is about its exceptional setting. The Pointe de Bilgroix, battered by the offshore winds and caressed by the changing light of the gulf, offers a panorama of the scattered islands of Morbihan - Île-aux-Moines, Île d'Arz - that invites contemplation. Here, more than anywhere else, you can see why Neolithic communities chose these maritime promontories to lay their dead: between sky, land and sea, on the edge of the world of the living. Listed as a historic monument since 1978, the Bilgroix dolmen is part of the extraordinary megalithic density of the Gulf of Morbihan, which boasts one of the highest concentrations of Neolithic monuments in Western Europe. The cairns of Gavrinis and Petit-Mont are just a few kilometres away, making this Arzon point an essential stop-off point for those travelling the great Breton megalithic circuit.
Architecture
The Bilgroix dolmen under a cairn belong to the family of megalithic burials with a covered chamber, characteristic of the Atlantic Neolithic. Its structure is based on the principle of assembling large slabs of local granite or schist - rocks that are abundant on the Rhuys peninsula - and standing them up vertically to form the walls of a burial chamber closed off by one or more horizontal cover slabs known as tables. A corridor of varying length links the chamber to the outside of the monument, allowing successive burials over the generations. The special architectural feature of Bilgroix is the partial preservation of its galgal, the dry stone cairn that originally enveloped the entire building. This protective mantle, made up of methodically arranged fragments of stone, gave the monument its outward form of an artificial hill, visible from a great distance in the flat landscape of the headland. The cairns on the Rhuys peninsula can be distinguished from the burial mounds elsewhere in Brittany by their careful mineral treatment, typical of the local traditions of southern Morbihan. The dimensions of the monument, although difficult to specify without recent published excavations, are similar to the medium-sized burials found in the region: a chamber up to two to three metres long, with an interior height approaching one and a half metres, all covered by a cairn whose original diameter could have exceeded ten to fifteen metres. The orientation of the chamber, probably towards sunrise or the Gulf, reflects a cosmological and geographical intention characteristic of Armorican Neolithic builders.
Related Figures
Communautés néolithiques armoricaines (bâtisseurs, vers 4000-3500 av. J.-C.)Zacharie Le Rouzic (archéologue carnacois, pionnier de l'étude des mégalithes morbihannais, XIXe-XXe siècle)Gustave de Closmadeuc (médecin et archéologue vannetais, explorateur des monuments de la presqu'île de Rhuys, XIXe siècle)James Miln (archéologue écossais, fouilles à Carnac et dans le Morbihan, XIXe siècle)Service régional de l'archéologie de Bretagne (gestionnaire scientifique contemporain du patrimoine mégalithique)
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Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Dolmen sous cairn dit de la pointe de Bilgroix located?
Dolmen sous cairn dit de la pointe de Bilgroix is located in Arzon, Département 56 department, Bretagne region, France.
Is Dolmen sous cairn dit de la pointe de Bilgroix open to visitors?
Dolmen sous cairn dit de la pointe de Bilgroix is currently closed to visitors.
