Tumulus de Colleredo
MonumentHidden Treasure
Tumulus de Colleredo, located in Saint-Gilles-Pligeaux (Département 22), is a historic monument. The monument is currently closed to visitors.
Key facts
- Type
- autre
- Location
- Saint-Gilles-Pligeaux, Département 22, Bretagne
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 48.3657, -3.1043
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00089627
Sentinelle de pierre dressée dans les landes bretonnes depuis l'Âge du bronze, le tumulus de Colleredo à Saint-Gilles-Pligeaux offre un voyage saisissant aux confins de la préhistoire armoricaine.
History
Perched in the bocage of the Côtes-d'Armor region, the Colleredo burial mound is one of those silent monuments that stand the test of time with fascinating obstinacy. Raised by anonymous hands over three millennia ago, this pile of stones and earth conceals the secrets of a protohistoric society whose burial rites remain partly enigmatic. Its presence in the rural landscape of Saint-Gilles-Pligeaux is all the more striking: where tractors plough, a sepulchral mound defies the present. What makes Colleredo unique among Brittany's many burial mounds is its remarkable preservation over the centuries. Brittany has an exceptional concentration of megalithic and protohistoric monuments - from Carnac to the moors of Morbihan - but the Côtes-d'Armor region also has its own stone milestones. Here, the tumuli, characteristic of the Armorican Bronze Age, bear witness to a warrior or priestly elite who left their mark on the land through their funerary monuments as much as through their actions. The visitor experience is first and foremost a communion with the landscape. Approaching the tumulus from the surrounding country lanes means gradually feeling the imposing presence of this mound that stands out against the horizon. The lichens and short grasses that colonise the structure give it a natural, almost vegetal patina, reinforcing the feeling of absolute antiquity. There is no museography between the visitor and the monument: the dialogue is direct, raw and timeless. The hedged farmland of Saint-Gilles-Pligeaux, with its sunken lanes and dense hedges, provides a perfectly discreet setting for this protected monument. Its inclusion on the Monuments Historiques list in 1969 provided institutional protection for a site that had long deserved official recognition. For lovers of prehistory, curious hikers or photographers in search of subjects full of substance, Colleredo offers a timeless stopover.
Architecture
The Colleredo tumulus belongs to the large family of Bronze Age mound burials, a type of funerary architecture characteristic of Atlantic Europe between the 2nd and 1st millennia BC. In its general morphology, it appears as a mound of roughly circular or oval shape, built by accumulating earth, gravel and blocks of local granite - an omnipresent material in the subsoil of the Côtes-d'Armor. The regular convex profile of the mound, characteristic of well-preserved tumuli, reflects the care taken by the builders in constructing this funerary monument. At the heart of the structure is probably a dry-cast burial chamber, based on the classic Armorican Bronze Age burial mound model. These burial chambers, generally made of granite slabs laid flat or at an angle, created an airtight space designed to protect the deceased and his or her possessions. The dimensions of such a monument in the region typically correspond to a diameter of between 15 and 40 metres and a height of between 1 and 4 metres, depending on the rank of the person buried and the resources mobilised by the community. The absence of any elaborate superstructure - arch, vault, colonnade - fundamentally distinguishes the tumulus from the sophisticated architecture of later periods. Here, monumentality is expressed through raw volume, the mass of displaced materials and visibility in the landscape. The outer envelope, now colonised by the low-lying vegetation typical of the inland moors of Brittany, was originally a carefully tilled surface, sometimes bordered by a ring of upright or recumbent stones designed to contain the mass of fill.
Related Figures
Membres anonymes de l'élite de l'Âge du bronze armoricain — probables commanditaires et défunts honorés par la sépultureChercheurs de la Société d'Émulation des Côtes-du-Nord (XIXe siècle) — premiers inventaires scientifiques des monuments protohistoriques du départementInspecteurs des Monuments Historiques (Direction régionale des Affaires culturelles de Bretagne) — initiateurs de la procédure d'inscription en 1969Paul du Châtellier (1833-1911) — archéologue finistérien dont les travaux pionniers sur les tumuli armoricains ont ouvert la voie à l'étude scientifique des monuments similaires à ColleredoZacharie Le Rouzic (1864-1939) — préhistorien breton dont les méthodes de fouilles et d'inventaire ont établi les standards d'étude des sépultures protohistoriques armoricaines
Tags
Nearby castles
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Tumulus de Colleredo located?
Tumulus de Colleredo is located in Saint-Gilles-Pligeaux, Département 22 department, Bretagne region, France.
Is Tumulus de Colleredo open to visitors?
Tumulus de Colleredo is currently closed to visitors.
