Menhir de Fohet

Standing stone
Puy-de-Dôme, Auvergne
Nearest town: Clermont-Ferrand
Nearest village: Aydat
Pierre qui Vire Image This huge menhir, prostrate for centuries, was used as starting point for funeral processions.

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This huge granitic pillar is the region's tallest standing stone. Locally known as "Pierre-Longue (Long Stone)", it is 4.75m (15.5ft) high and it stands in elevated position, in a field by the D788 road, with great views on the lake of Aydat.
The menhir has been prostrate for longtime. Until the XIX century it was used as starting point of the local funeral processions: at first the coffin was put on the stone and after the funeral oration was transported to the church of Saint-Julien-sur-Aydat.
The stone has been in a recumbent position until the 31st December of some years ago, when a group of people interested in parapsychology and occultism re-erected it, without asking permission to do it. They probably wanted to recreate a kind of giant druidical energy aerial, but in such a way they destroyed the original socket of the standing stone.

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All photographs © Diego Meozzi (diego@stonepages.com)