Name of a menhir! What could have happened in Carnac so that a Mr Bricolage could be built on a listed archaeological site? This is the question on everyone's lips in this small town in Morbihan, known worldwide for its menhirs and megalithic alignments.
The whistleblower in this story worthy of Asterix is an inhabitant of Carnac named Christian Obeltz. In a post published last Friday on Sites & Monuments.org, this archaeology enthusiast spoke out against "brutal developments", carried out during the winter and spring of 2023 "near the rows of menhirs of Carnac, distorting this world-famous site".
A building permit was indeed issued on August 26, 2022 by the town hall of Carnac (Morbihan) to SAS Au marché des Druides, for the construction of a Mr Bricolage store south of the Montauban business park. Construction is underway and the building is already coming out of the ground, reports Ouest-France. The consequences are disastrous for the local specialist: he is indignant at the "destruction of the 39 menhirs of the road to Montauban. This is totally illegal! »
The problem comes from the fact that the area where the store is currently built is actually on a site referenced since 2015 on the Atlas of heritage, a platform of the Drac to map archaeological sites throughout the France.
At this location, notably delimited by a low wall, excavations had made it possible to bring out "undoubtedly one of the oldest sets of steles in the municipality of Carnac, judging by the carbon 14 dating obtained in 2010 on the neighboring site of the ZA of Montauban", recalls in his post Christian Obeltz, specifying that one of the lines of stelae was "exactly in its original place for 7000 years". The site of Montauban was also on the tentative list of the project of inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage List, which concerns 397 megaliths on the banks of Carnac and Morbihan, spread over 27 municipalities...
"If we had known, we would have done otherwise!"
So how could such a hiccup happen? According to the town hall, the Drac had placed the site in a prescription zone in the former Land Use Plan (POS). But not in the current Local Urban Plan (PLU), the responsibility of the municipality however. "If we had known, we would have done differently!" reacted the mayor of Carnac, Olivier Lepick indicating that he had not been aware that the area was referenced, and refers to the Drac. "We are extremely attentive to this kind of thing, we look at archaeological pre-registration areas. In this matter, for our part, we have scrupulously complied with the legislation. " he defended himself to the local daily.
For his part, the manager of the SAS Stéphane Doriel, still with Ouest-France, pleaded "his good faith". "I filed a building permit, which was investigated, posted, which served the time limits for appeal. I'm not an archaeologist, I don't know menhirs; Low walls, there are everywhere. If we had known that, we would have done otherwise, of course! " he assured. Small disturbing detail all the same: in December 2014, the same SAS Au marché des Druides had applied for a building permit for this area. The prefecture of Morbihan had then requested, by order, an archaeological diagnosis. "Because of their location, the works envisaged are likely to affect elements of the archaeological heritage," justified the services of the State. The building permit was then revoked. Contacted the DRAC Bretagne had not responded to us at the time of writing these lines but should communicate during the day.