Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The dolmen of Menez Goarem ar Feunteun, located in Plobannalec-Lesconil in Finistère, is a vestige of a vast megalithic necropolis of Neolithic. In the 19th century, the site had more than fifteen tumulus spread over ten to twelve hectares, but it was almost completely destroyed by urbanization. Only a few remains, including a dolmen classified in 1921, remain in a garden visible from Jules-Ferry Street.

The site, described in 1883 by Paul du Châtellier, housed dolmens with compartmented rooms, including an 11-metre-long copy with a curved corridor and an ovoid chamber. The stones of the site were used to build the local houses, accelerating its disappearance. The archaeological importance of the compartmentalized dolmens of this place is stressed by Jean L-Helgouac-h.

In the 18th century, the area was almost deserted, but the rise of fishing in the 19th century transformed Lesconil, resulting in the gradual destruction of the site. The tumulus extended between a fountain and the Ster Nibilik, with three tumulus isolated from Menez Veil. Today, only scattered remains remind this necropolis, whose detailed plan by the Châtellier remains the main historical source.

The classified dolmen, partially preserved, illustrates neolithic funeral architecture with its megalithic walls and dry stone. Its room, probably covered by corbellation, measures 3 × 5 meters. The site, once rich in covered alleys and urns, was looted for its materials, as the Châtellier feared in his notes of 1881.

The toponym Menez Goarem ar Feunteun evokes in Breton a "stone mountain of the fountain", reflecting the local landscape. The site, located on a plateau sloping towards the sea, was a place of collective burial before becoming an informal quarry. Its ranking in 1921 was able to save only a fragment of this megalithic Breton heritage.

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