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Origin and history

Menhirs U Frati è a Sora (or Menhirs du Rizzanese) are located at the place called Gjumenta Russa, in the municipality of Sartène, in South Corsica. They were first described in 1840 by Prosper Mérimée in Notes d'un voyage en Corse, which notes their inclination one to another and the presence of a third stone lying between them, perhaps a fragment. Mérimée notes that the largest menhir, U Frati ("the brother"), measured about 3 meters (today broken), while A Sora ("the nun"), overturned, reached 1.25 m. These stones would be part of a wider alignment, now gone.

According to local legend, the menhirs represent a monk and a petrified nun for violating their wishes. This story inspired cultural works, such as the song U Frati è a Sora from the Svegliu group of Isula, evoking forbidden love and divine curse. Menhirs have been listed as historical monuments since the 1889 list, highlighting their archaeological and symbolic importance.

Subsequent descriptions, such as those of Adrien de Mortillet in 1883, confirm their neolithic origin and fragmentary state. Their location near the Rizzanese, on the way to Propriano, makes them major landscape and historical markers of the region. Their preservation makes it possible to study megalithic practices in Corsica, although their exact function (tritual, funeral or astronomical) remains debated.

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