Rocheville: Rock Town or City in the Mountain?
Near the village of Bricquebec in Normandy there is a small community of around 600 inhabitants called Rocheville - translated "Rock Town". She is proud of her small "ganggrab" in a nearby forest, the "Bois de la Grosse Roche".
As already mentioned several times, "gang graves" are called "Allées couvertes" in French. Also with this specimen here there is no reference to a grave, since only an axe made of flint was found there in the last half of the 19th century. It can be visited in the museum of Cherbourg.
Wikipedia lets us know that the plant consists of about 35 stones, of which 5 are ceiling tiles. This makes it a little longer than the Bretteville en Saire site, but not as monumental as I have seen on site.
This forest, where the Allée couverte de la petite Roche (as the name is sometimes also called Pierre aux Druides) is located, has other anomalies for which no one - it seems - is wasting another word. A small hint, which sounds rather insignificant, is that "almost all stones are no longer in situ" (i.e.: on site). This sounds a little strange when you look at the Allée, since apart from the usual missing ceiling tiles, there still seem to be some side panels and the system also has a closure.
The orientation of the Allée couverte runs from east to west and one can see from a drawing that there were originally a total of 9 "tables" with the necessary number of supports. Other stones are scattered in the surrounding area. This also includes any "table tops".
If you look around and explore the surrounding area, you might think that this "ganggrab" is a distraction, because further up the hill you will find another rock complex.
Path to the "petites roches" hill
Solitary rocks that open connection openings
In no time you are in front of a rock complex that is not scientifically classified. That is, one fluctuates between natural rock chaos and a plant of artificial origin. They are called "Les petites Roches", which suggests that behind the imposing rocks in the middle of the forest something bigger may be waiting for you. But first to the "small rocks", which are also called stones of the druids. The sudden accumulation of rock is about 20 metres long and runs in an east-west direction. One does not give oneself the nakedness from the scientific side to commit oneself definitively to the origin.
"Tapered" rocks in conical form
Piece of rock cake - probably not of natural origin
Geology has no explanation for the sudden presence of these rocks.
There are numerous signs of human processing traces..
There are artificial walls and depressions to the side of the hill. The floor may have collapsed a long time ago. A soil analysis would certainly be of great help here. Perhaps the slope has an "inner life". Some traditions speak a clear language here.
It must have been a real rock explosion (out of nowhere?), if one wants to assume a natural origin here. It should be borne in mind that this is practically an intermediate hill on a rising mountain, which "suddenly" has huge rocks stacked on top of each other - if one takes the surrounding trees away - could just as well have been a fortification post to entrench oneself. If you take a closer look at the whole thing, the rock scenario rather reminds you of prepared or at least worked blocks that fell victim to a blasting or a tectonic event. As if by chance tilted ceiling tiles, narrow corridors with straight walls and strangely cone-shaped rocks tapering upwards give the impression as if someone had laid hands here in ancient times. Some rocks stand upright with a comparatively small footprint, so it is hard to believe in the theory of chance. In any case, some processing traces can hardly be dismissed by hand. It's hard to say whether someone laid hands there at a later point in time or at the time of creation. In any case, there are hewn support niches and notches.
Circumnavigating this intermediate station and continuing up the main mountain, one stands in 100 metres in front of the so-called "Big Roche" (wide rock). Here, at the latest, science finds it much more difficult to use the word "natural". The rocky complex there rises like an ancient fortress with vertical walls between beech trees. One speaks here of a "natural" oppidium, which is occupied with stones. Indeed, it is difficult not to speak here of a kind of city wall with overhangs, peaks, watchtowers and a summit platform. In addition, small "secret" corridors open up between the blocks. Here, too, you need a keen eye to discover the traces of human occupation or processing.
But you will find it if you are looking for symmetry. In some places, one fluctuates between frost bursting and stack arrangement. Elsewhere I have no doubt that we are dealing here with technical-human structures. Where you get the impression that blocks have been stacked on top of each other in a targeted manner and have not separated from each other later by cracks. There are sections - especially in the area of the plateau, which is at least 5-6 meters high and appears to be uniformly flat for accidental formation anyway - where giant rocks stacked flat above each other form projections. In these cases it is hard to imagine that they had previously formed a uniform rock.
The staircase to "Grosse Roche" seems to be surrounded by fortification walls, real wall sections
Straight rock crevices, cube-shaped single rocks in the section of the Grosse Roche
In search of an underground city
Pierre Lefillastre collected oral traditions of the 19th century and collected them in the Annuaire de la Manche of 1833. "We have here, near the village of Bricquebec, a mountain called Brémont. At this place existed a city of the same name (I could not find any trace of this imaginary city). Some people claim that the mountain contains caves where rich treasures are kept by a sow that spits flames. An Italian, it is said, wanted to seize this shrine by force, but was forced to run away from the eyes of the monsters who had attacked him". Amélie Bosquet also took it up in 1845. Of course, it has not yet been possible to determine where this Brémont mountain is located in the area, but this place of the "Grosses et Petites Roches" would be a good proposal.
In 1979 René Letenneur associated the story with a huge monolith (Source: Magic, Sorcellerie et Fantastique en Normandie, Ocep 1978). What has been spun together on the basis of a basic legend has been put there. However, it would certainly be worthwhile to use cavity detectors in this plot. Maybe there are caves there.
What Didier Audinot, a meanwhile deceased alternative researcher, says about this topic:
"Around Bricquebec, this time in the Manche department, the underground refuges have a newer origin but are a reality. They are said to have been designed by the inhabitants of the original village at the time of the first Viking attacks in Normandy and were reused during the Hundred Years' War and during the religious wars. Most of them are centred around the hill known as "Grosses Rochers". Everyone went there to look for little treasures hidden by the refugees" from his book: Chasses aux Trésors en Normandie, Editions Charles Corlet.
So are there any underground passages around Rocheville? Do they really contain treasures hidden there during the Hundred Years' War? Personally, I believe in the existence of a much older megalithic architecture that was originally used for other purposes, but of course cannot prove it.
