Centre des monuments nationaux

Explore the Barnanez cairn, the largest Megalithic mausoleum in Europe, lying at the top of a steeply sloping peninsula in the bay of Morlaix in the Finistère. 

Visiting the Barnenez cairn 

• The ‘Megalithic Parthenon’. This monument is 75 metres long and 5 metres high, and is made up of two juxtaposed cairns housing 11 passage tombs. A large-scale model in the reception centre provides a better understanding of how the monument is laid out, and reproductions of decorated floor stones are on show. The north facade was used as a quarry, and certain chambers of the dolmens have been exposed showing how they fitted into this monumental architecture. 

Understanding the Barnenez cairn 

• Virtuoso builders. Two sorts of vaulting are used in these tombs, either a flat stone as is used in normal dolmens or a ‘false’ rounded dome made out of a clever structure of little flat stones. It was built in Neolithic times (4 00 to 3500 BC), during which period man became sedentary and started farming. 

• A ‘rediscovered’ site. It was identified as a "tumulus" (man-made earth mound) in 1850, but rediscovered in 1955 when it was being used as a quarry. From 1955 to 1968 excavation and consolidation work was carried out, and this enormous mound of stones regained its original appearance.