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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The Gargantua Stone is a four-metre-high sandstone menhir located in a field north of Neaufles-Auvergny (Eure). Dated from the Neolithic, this imposing block (2.10 m wide, 0.85 m thick) is quoted from 1298 under the name longa petra in an ecclesiastical document. Its current name, linked to the giant Gargantua, comes from local legends evoking its use as a sharpening stone for tools or faulx.

The first modern description dates from 1829, when Frédéric Galeron described him as a very straight obelisk in a study of Druidic monuments. Auguste Le Prévost (1832) and the Viscount de Pulligny (1879) report legends combining Gargantua with stone, while Léon Coutil gave a precise analysis of it in 1896. Ranked a historic monument in 1934, the menhir was once linked to Lyre Abbey, whose land included the site.

The 19th century excavations revealed the foundations of buildings near the menhir, now missing. The stone, in fine sandstone, was actually used to sharpen the tools, practical at the origin of popular narratives. These legends describe Gargantua throwing the stone after using it to sharpen a false giant, explaining its vertical position in the valley. The site remains a rare testimony of neolithic practices in Normandy.

The 1934 classification protected this vestige, one of the few menhirs kept in the Eure. Its state of conservation and its location in the open field make it a typical example of Norman megaliths, although its archaeological context was partially altered by agricultural activities and the destruction of surrounding foundations in the 19th century.

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