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Origin and history

The Roman Pile, known as La Pyramide, is a stone tower from the Gallo-Roman period, located in Authon-Ebéon, Charente-Maritime. This monument, probably a funeral, belonged to a wealthy local owner. It stands along the Roman way from Saintes to Poitiers, now covered by the departmental D129. Its placement at the edge of the track suggests a visual marker function for travellers, although this hypothesis has been ruled out in favour of its funeral vocation.

The vestiges, very degraded, show a core blocking 6 meters side by side and 16 meters high, initially covered with a large device trimming now disappeared. At an indeterminate time, this trim was recovered, leaving the monument in its present state. The pile was probably crowned with a pyramid or cone, and was to occupy the center of a square enclosure of 75 meters side. It has been protected as historical monuments since the 1840 list.

Nicknamed the "fanal d'Ebeon" (from the Latin fanum, "the temple"), the pile has been the subject of various interpretations, such as that of a bitter for navigators or a roadmark, all rejected by the researchers. Since the 1930s, there have been some supporters of its structure, but its condition remains worrying: in 2020, a local association and elected officials alerted about its stability. Similar piles, such as Pirelonge in Saint-Romain-de-Benet, are better preserved, marking the same ancient path.

The Roman pillar of Authon-Ebeon illustrates Gallo-Roman funeral architecture, marked by imposing monuments designed to honor the local elite. These structures, often placed on the edge of tracks, also served as landmarks in the landscape. Their gradual degradation reflects the practices of material recovery in the following centuries, as evidenced by the disappearance of the original trimming.

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