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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The menhir known as Le Gros Caillou or Grès Montfort is a sandstone slab of Landenian sandstone of trapezoidal form, measuring between 2 and 2.30 m wide for 1.20 m thick, erected at the Bruyère de Sommaing in Vendegies-sur-Écaillon (North). Ranked a historic monument in 1980, this protohistoric megalith presents cups and excavations on its eastern face, interpreted by some as natural representations of human and equine feet. A local legend says that women used to look for newborns under the stone, reinforcing its sacred aura.

Around 1870–72, an attempt to move the menhir to the communal cemetery to serve as a base for a calvary failed despite the use of a cart coupled with 20 horses lent by the Compagnie des mines d'Anzin. The stone, raised on grids, resisted transportation and was abandoned on site. This failure was interpreted as proof of its sacred character. In 1918, a German company stationed in Vendegies raised the slab and carried out an archaeological excavation, the results of which were lost. An inscription engraved on this occasion was later deleted.

At the end of the 19th century, Dr. Bombart undertook excavations and thought to identify three pillars under the slab, as well as a flint of flint he took for a cut axe. He initially hypothesized a dolmen vestige, before abandoning it. The stone, probably a cupstone, preserves traces of excavations whose origin (natural or anthropogenic) remains debated. His history thus combines archaeology, local legends and human interventions, from attempts to move to heritage classifications.

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