Mayor destroys 'French Stonehenge' to make way for a hardware shop

By Henry Samuel
June 16, 2023 — 3.41pm

A French mayor has become the ‘most hated man in France’ after he authorised the destruction of prehistoric stones seen as part of the ‘French Stonehenge’ to make way for a DIY shop.

Olivier Lepick, mayor of Carnac in Brittany, western France, said he had received death threats after giving the green light to bulldoze around 40 “menhirs” thought to be 7000 years old. The colossal rocks have been immortalised in the Asterix comic books.

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The Alignement de Carnac are said to predate the Roman Empire by at least 3000 years. He claims it was down to an “administrative error” as he hadn’t realised they were of archeological value.

The stones were between 0.5m to 6 metres tall, with an average-sized menhir weighing between five and 10 tonnes, and stood around 1.5 kilometres, from the main Alignement de Carnac, a vast archaeological site that predates Stonehenge by 1000 years and encompasses thousands of standing stones spread across 27 communes - one of the largest collections of their kind in the world.

The mayor granted the Mr Bricolage DIY chain a building permit in August last year. Around 40 menhirs have since been razed.

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Olivier Lepick, mayor of Carnac in Brittany, western France.CREDIT:FACEBOOK

More:
https://www.theage.com.au/world/europe/mayor-destroys-french-stonehenge-to-make-way-for-a-hardware-shop-20230616-p5dh86.html