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Origin and history

The menhir says La Minche du Diable, also known as Pierre Combe, is a block of siliceous rock striated with quartz sills, slightly inclined. Measuring 3.70 m in height for 2.40 m in width at its base, it exhibits fractures and traces of thermal bursts, remains of an attempt to destroy at the end of the 20th century. A polished axe, discovered at its foot in 1907, bears witness to its seniority and its connection to the Neolithic populations.

According to local legend, this menhir would have served as a goal in a game between the Devil and an angel, called the meinge (ancestor of the palet). The Devil, offended by the precision of the angel, would have abandoned the part, leaving his blade halfway. This folk tale gave its current name to the monument: the Meinge-du-Diable. Nearby, another stone called Palet du Diable or Pierre Dormante, perhaps a overturned menhir, was moved in the 1990s.

The site has been protected since 5 March 1969 by an inscription for historical monuments. It is part of a larger megalithic ensemble, characteristic of the Prehistoric Vendée, as evidenced by Bertrand Poissonnier's work in The Prehistoric Vendée (1997). The rock, composed of silica and quartz, and the artifacts discovered in its vicinity, bear witness to the practices and beliefs of the Neolithic societies of the region.

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