Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Pierre Folle de Bournand, also called Pierre Folle des Ormeaux, is a monumental dolmen of the angelvin type, characteristic of the megalithic constructions of the Neolithic. Located in the courtyard of a private farm in Bournand, this megalith has been listed as a historic monument since 1889, although it is not accessible to the public. Its architecture reflects the funeral and cultural practices of the prehistoric societies of the region, which erected these structures for ritual or sepulchral uses.

Bournand, a rural town in Vienna, New Aquitaine, is marked by a landscape of rolling plains and sandy or clayy soils, typical of the Paris Basin. The dolmen is part of a territory where the neolithic remains, such as the dolmens d'Epennes or the hill of Saint-Drémont, testify to an ancient human occupation. These monuments, often linked to collective practices, emphasize the importance of megalithic sites in the social and spiritual organization of the communities of the time.

The classification of the Pierre Folle in 1889 is part of a desire to preserve the French prehistoric heritage, while many megaliths were threatened by agriculture or urbanization. In Bournand, as in other rural communes, these remains coexist with a medieval and religious heritage, such as the Commandery of the Moulins, linked to the Templars and the Hospitallers, or the Church of Saint Martin, partially Romanesque. This diversity illustrates the historical stratification of the territory, from prehistoric times to medieval and modern periods.

The region, marked by acidic soils and forests such as Grandjean Wood, is home to a rare and protected flora, reflecting an ecosystem shaped by millennia of human and natural interactions. Dolmen, as a tangible trace of Neolithic, recalls the ancestral link between local populations and their environment, well before subsequent agricultural and industrial transformations.

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