A Stonehenge project with Breton sauce will see the light of day in three or four years in Carhaix in Finistère.
The megalithic site will be made up of 36 blocks of granite that will form a circle with an imposing menhir in the center.
Imagined by the founder of the Vallée des Saints, the project takes on “an issue of memory and cultural identity”.
It is the most famous megalithic site in the world.
With its set of stones erected in a circle, Stonehenge, located in the county of Wiltshire in the south-west of England, welcomes more than a million visitors each year.
At each summer or winter solstice, thousands of New Age enthusiasts, revelers and the curious also gather there to watch the sunrise.
Even Barack Obama had stopped to visit the monument after a NATO summit organized in September 2014 in Wales.
Perhaps jealous of the success of the English site, Brittany also wants its own Stonehenge.
Because in terms of megaliths, the region knows a lot with its many menhirs and dolmens that stand on its granite land.
"It's not only at Stonehenge that you find these stone circles, Brittany also has many cromlechs", emphasizes Philippe Abjean.
“Not a copy or a pastiche of Stonehenge”
It is to this fervent defender of Breton culture and history that we owe the revival of the Tro Breizh, a pilgrimage to celebrate the seven founding saints of Brittany, or the creation of the Valley of the Saints, a kind Breton Easter Island where nearly 170 monumental statues are erected.
Angry with the new site team, whom he blames for a commercial drift, Philippe Abjean is now focusing on his Breton Stonehenge project, called StoneBreizh.
It is on a meadow in Carhaix, the stronghold of the Vieilles Charrues, that this megalithic site should see the light of day in three or four years.
It will be made up of 36 blocks of granite 5 to 6 m high which will form a circle 43 meters in diameter, “larger than that of Stonehenge”.
In its center will be a menhir, donated by Breton granite workers, which will be hand-raised for the summer solstice on June 21, thus marking the start of the project.
“But it will not be a copy or a pastiche of Stonehenge, assures Philippe Abjean.
That would be ridiculous and would make no sense.
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Solstice celebrations and fire of Saint John
In search of a contemporary touch for this future place, the StoneBreizh association that he chairs has also launched a drawing competition to imagine what this megalithic circle will look like.
“We are not in the past, it is a project that we want modern to remind that our region has a history and a culture”, assures Philippe Abjean, wanting to make Brittany “an example in this general context. of cancel culture”.
Eventually, once the monoliths have been erected, this former philosophy professor, now retired, would also like a second circle of schist steles to come out of the ground.
"To evoke the key dates in Breton history and celebrate those who made it", underlines Philippe Abjean, dreaming of a "Breton Pantheon in the open air".
The megalithic site, which will be accessible free of charge, will also serve as a place of celebration and gathering with the possibility of accommodating a thousand people.
"We are going to revive the solstice celebrations and the tradition of the fire of Saint John which has gradually disappeared in recent years in Brittany", he announces proudly.
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A call for sponsorship
To finance this somewhat crazy project, estimated at around one million euros, the StoneBreizh association is appealing for sponsorship.
"We are of course counting on the mobilization of the 1,415 municipalities of Brittany to support this project which is an issue of memory and cultural identity", indicates Philippe Abjean.
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