Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Menhir d'Altorf, nicknamed Langestein ("the long stone"), is erected at Gaensweidt, on the border of the municipalities of Altorf and Dorlisheim (Bas-Rhin). This monument in yellow-red sandstone, 2.24 metres high, presents later engravings: a coat of arms evoking Altorf, a face in bas-relief, and the vintage 1781 on its other faces. Originally probably crude, it was modified to mark territorial boundaries and bears traces of re-use as a boundary between the Altorf and Dorlisheim bans.

Archaeological excavations led by F.A. Schaeffer in 1928 revealed that a funeral terre, dating from the late Hallstatt period (iron age), had been raised around the menhir. This earth was used as a burial before being partially destroyed in the 19th or 20th century when a nearby meadow was levelled. The site, associated with local legends (sabbaths, appearance of a white lady), was also called Hexenbuckel ("Witch terre") by the inhabitants of Altorf, or Hardtbibber in Molsheim.

Ranked a Historic Monument in 1930, the menhir rests on an irregular base set with pebbles, with a breakage filled with two stones. Its history combines protohistoric funeral uses, medieval or modern boundary, and Alsatian folklore. A local anecdote tells that a drunken Molsheim, having won a glutton bet, died near the stone, where he was buried by the villagers.

Cut in coarse sandstone probably from Wolxheim or Soultz-les-Bains, the menhir illustrates the symbolic and practical reappropriation of megaliths over the centuries. Its classification today protects the remains of its funeral terter, witness to the sepulchral practices of the Iron Age in Alsace.

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