Menhir de Guihallon
MonumentHidden Treasure
Menhir de Guihallon, located in Lamballe (Département 22), is a historic monument. The monument is currently closed to visitors.
Key facts
- Type
- autre
- Location
- Lamballe, Département 22, Bretagne
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 48.4769, -2.4256
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00089235
A stone sentinel that has stood at the gateway to Lamballe since Neolithic times, the Guihallon menhir bears witness to the spiritual fervour of the first Breton farmers. A listed monolith, sober and striking.
History
In the heart of the Côtes-d'Armor region, near the town of Lamballe, the Guihallon menhir stands like a silent vestige of Armorican prehistory. This monolith, planted in the earth over five millennia ago, is part of the remarkable megalithic culture that has made Brittany one of the world's richest centres of Neolithic monuments. Its mere presence in the rural landscape of Lamballe commands respect and arouses deep curiosity in any visitor sensitive to human history. The Guihallon menhir has all the typical features of Armorican menhirs from the Neolithic period: a block of local granite cut and standing vertically, its tapering or slightly tapered silhouette silhouetted against the Breton sky. Its surface, patinated by centuries of weathering, reveals the grey-blue and ochre hues of Côtes-d'Armor granite, a material chosen for its solidity and local availability. This mineralogical choice anchors the monument in its territory in an almost organic way. What sets the Guihallon menhir apart is above all the persistence of its original location in an area that has been profoundly transformed by millennia of agriculture and urbanisation. Where many similar menhirs have been knocked down, salvaged or moved, this one has stood the test of time, perhaps retaining the exact position given to it by its Neolithic builders. This permanence gives it a singular aura. A visit to the site lends itself to slow, attentive contemplation. Walking around the monolith, observing the play of low-angled light at the end of the day on its granite surface, feeling the mass and the anchoring of the stone in the ground: all sensory experiences that make this monument much more than a simple archaeological witness. For lovers of megaliths, landscape photography or ancient history, the Guihallon menhir is an essential stop-off point on any exploration of prehistoric Brittany. It has been listed as a Historic Monument since 1965, guaranteeing its legal protection and providing official recognition of its heritage value. Located in the Lamballe region, at the historic crossroads between the Armorican peninsula and Normandy, this menhir is part of a dense network of megalithic sites that criss-cross the Côtes-d'Armor region, taking visitors on a journey through the ages along country roads.
Architecture
The Guihallon menhir belongs to the category of simple menhirs, or isolated menhirs, as opposed to alignments such as those at Carnac or stone circles. It is a single monolith, planted vertically in the ground, and is probably between two and four metres high above the ground - common dimensions for menhirs in the Côtes-d'Armor region. The rock used is Armorian granite, which is omnipresent in the subsoil of the Côtes-d'Armor, and its coarse grading and exceptional hardness explain the remarkable preservation of the monument after thousands of years of exposure to the elements. The general shape of the monolith is that of an irregular prism, tapering slightly towards the top, characteristic of Neolithic stone-cutting, which sought to accentuate the vertical momentum of the stone without the use of metal tools for precise shaping. The faces of the stone have a rough surface, marked by grey, yellow and black lichens that colonise the roughness of the granite and give the monument its distinctive age-old patina. There is no evidence of engraved decoration on this menhir, unlike some Armorican megaliths decorated with intaglio motifs. The placement of the menhir in the Lamballais landscape probably follows a topographical or astronomical logic specific to the Neolithic builders: a position at a slight height or at the convergence of ancient paths, allowing the monument to be visible from afar and to play its role as a marker in the organisation of the territory. The buried mass of the menhir, generally equivalent to a third of its total height, has ensured its stability for thousands of years, thanks to the careful wedging of stone blocks in the pit in which it was erected.
Related Figures
Bâtisseurs néolithiques anonymes de l'Armorique (4500-2000 av. J.-C.) — communautés agraires à l'origine de l'érection du menhirJacques Cambry (1749-1807) — antiquaire breton auteur du Voyage dans le Finistère, pionnier de l'inventaire des mégalithes armoricainsProsper Mérimée (1803-1870) — inspecteur général des Monuments Historiques, artisan de la politique nationale de protection du patrimoine préhistoriqueThéophile de la Tour d'Auvergne (1743-1800) — celtomane et premier folkloriste breton ayant collecté les traditions orales liées aux menhirsAndré Malraux (1901-1976) — ministre des Affaires culturelles sous le gouvernement de Gaulle, dans le cadre de la politique ayant conduit au classement de 1965
Tags
Nearby castles
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Menhir de Guihallon located?
Menhir de Guihallon is located in Lamballe, Département 22 department, Bretagne region, France.
Is Menhir de Guihallon open to visitors?
Menhir de Guihallon is currently closed to visitors.
