Last modified: 2024-04-06 by olivier touzeau
Keywords: gironde | saint-sulpice-de-faleyrens | menhir |
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Flag of Saint-Sulpice-de-Faleyrens - Image by Olivier Touzeau, 18 April 2022
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Saint-Sulpice-de-Faleyrens (1,319 inhabitants in 2021; 1,817 ha) is a commune in the Gironde department. The name of the commune alludes to the 17th century bishop of Bourges, Saint Sulpice, and to a religious community that favored rural places, the faleyre designating the fern in Occitan.
Saint-Sulpice-de-Faleyrens is one of eight municipalities forming the jurisdiction of Saint-Émilion, which is a UNESCO World Heritage of Humanity for its historic vineyard landscape that has survived intact and in use.
Olivier Touzeau, 18 April 2022
The town hosts one of the oldest testimonies of human occupation of the
jurisdiction: the Pierrefitte menhir, known in the ancient texts as _Petra fixa_, "the planted stone", is the tallest megalith in South-West France. Probably dated to early Neolithic (2600-2300 BC), it is composed of a monolithic block of quadrangular section, slightly slanted and shaped like a hand palm.
One of the menhir's faces, 0.70 m above the soil level is pierced with a circular "offering hole" dig in the Middle Ages. The stone shows several other traces of devotion; in the past, the menhir allegedly offered prosperity and happiness to everyone honored it, especially to young lovers. The menhir is located close to the St. Julian fountain, once used to cure eyesore, and quarries, al connected to the legend of monk St. Émilion.
François Querre invented some 20 years ago a solstice ritual, claiming that the menhir once had astronomical and religious functions. On St. John's evening (21 June), people decorate the menhir, candles are lit a,f fireworks are shot to increase the solstice dimension of the festival. After a concert, everyone writes a vow on a piece of paper folded like a ship and floated on nearby river Dordogne. There is no evidence, however, as such a festival in earlier times. [source: Survey of France's cultural immaterial heritage, Ministry of Culture]
François Querre worked for decades in sub-Saharan Africa, creating rural radios emitting in local languages in Mauritania, Senegal, Mali Burkina Faso, Guinea, Chad and Burundi. Back to Europe with his wife Almuth (d. 2022), he settled in the family estate of Monbousquet in Saint-Sulpice-de-Faleyrens. The couple created the association for the restoration of the Romanesque church of the village and the Grandes Heures de Saint-Émilion, a music festival of international fame hold in the most prestigious châteaux. [source: Le Résistant, 11 january 2022]
Ivan Sache, 22 April 2022
The flag of the commune is white with logo (photo, 2015).
Olivier Touzeau, 18 April 2022