Lec'h

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Through the top of Christianized Lec'h next to the Chapelle Notre-Dame-du-Loc, in Saint-Avé
Boule de Saint-Michel in Louargat

A Lec'h (or Lech or Llech) is a constantly worked Gallic megalith of hemispherical (semi-spherical) or elongated, menhir-like , in any case geometric shape. It occurs mainly in Brittany , the Massif Central and Mayenne, but can also be found in England and Wales .

Lec'h is a Breton word that means "flat stone". It's close to the word Cromlech . The name refers to a burial place in old Welsh poems.

The squat Lec'hs are mostly 80 cm or 1.0 m high and the slim ones do not exceed 3.0 meters. They are not to be confused with menhirs , which are older, can be much larger and are almost unprocessed. The most common shape is pyramidal with four sides, with folded or tense angles, with a rounded or flattened top. Some are fairly regular truncated cones, others are fluted or shaped like spindles or bulrushes. Some have even been given popular names.

In Gallic times, Lec'hs likely indicated the presence of a tomb or necropolis .

Many of them were changed and reused in the course of Christianization. Some contain engraved crosses and inscriptions from the 9th and 10th centuries. They are most often found near churches and chapels.

  • Lec'hs

  • Lec'h de Langonbrach at the Chapelle Saint-Maurille in Langombrach ( Landaul municipality )

  • Lec'h Men-er-Menah in Locoal-Mendon

  • Christianized Lec'h in Trégunc ; Brittany.

  • Lec'h at the Église Saint-Pierre de Peillac

  • Lec'h from Kermenhir in Plougasnou

literature

  • Louis Marsille: Le Menhir et le Culte des Pierres In: Bulletin de la Société polymathique du Morbihan, 1936, pp. 38–39, Le Menhir christianisé de Langonbrach en Landaul.
  • Loïc Langouët: Les mégalithes de l'arrondissement de Guingamp, Institut Culturel de Bretagne, 2006 ( ISBN 978-2-86822-101-8 )

Web links