Menhir de la Murtra

The Menhir de la Murtra, also known as Piedra Gentil, Piedra Murtra or the menhir of the Piedra Murtra, is a sandstone monolith in the Spanish municipality of San Clemente Sasebas, in the province of Girona, at a place called La Murtra, from which it takes its name. It is 3.25 m high, 1.30 m wide and 0.43 thick.

It was first mentioned in 1879 by Antonio Balmaña. In June of the same year a commission of the Centro Excursionista de Cataluña, made up of Cèsar August Torras, Ursino Mitjans and Esteve Sunyer, visited it and made several drawings and sketches. The menhir has never been scientifically excavated.

From the architectural type of the menhir, and mainly from the chronology of the megalithic tombs around it, it can be deduced that it was built between 3500 and 3000 BC. The catalogue record, by contrast, gives a typological estimate of 2800 to 1800 BCE, so the date should be treated as an estimate rather than a firm fact.

Beyond this, little is recorded about the stone. Menhirs of the western European megalithic type are relatively unusual in Spain compared with dolmens, but they are common sights in the northern half of the country, where at least 500 have been reported. They are particularly common in the Basque Country, Navarre, northern Burgos and Palencia, Cantabria and the Pyrenees, usually standing alone or in small groups in elevated places. Most appear to date back to the Stone Age, and they are not usually associated with burials.

Menhir de la Murtra is a menhir (standing stone) in Sant Climent Sescebes, Spain. Wikidata describes it as: megalith in Sant Climent Sescebes, Spain. A typological estimate: 2800 BCE to 1800 BCE. No English Wikipedia article exists for it; the full text below is the Spanish article "Menhir de la Murtra", shown in the original language.