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Origin and history

The Croc Menhir is a flat sandstone megalith about 2.2 metres high, located in a field north of Serquigny, in the department of Eure. It is located at the Quévrue, on the edge of the Locquerais wood, and would have been linked to a larger whole, as suggested by the toponyme chemin de la Trigale (the three stones), at the border of the neighbouring municipality of Launay. His name could come from Judith de Conan, wife of Richard II of Normandy, nicknamed Judith de Hicroc or Hucroc at the end of the 16th century.

The menhir was first mentioned in 1897 by Léon Coutil, then president of the French Prehistoric Society. It symbolizes the ancient occupation of the territory by the Véliocasses, a Gaulish tribe established at the confluence of Risle and Charenton, before the Roman conquest. The Romans also confronted the Lexovians, but this megalith remains the only tangible vestige of this pre-Roman period in the region.

Ranked as historical monuments by order of 17 July 1991, the Menhir du Croc illustrates the importance of megalithic sites in Normandy. Its current isolation contrasts with its presumed history, where it was probably part of an alignment or a group of stones, as local sources and surrounding toponyms evoked.

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