Dolmen de Mettray

The Dolmen de Mettray, also known as the Dolmen de la Grotte aux Fées or Saint-Antoine-du-Rocher dolmen, stands at the Moulin de Réchaussé in Saint-Antoine-du-Rocher, Indre-et-Loire, France, near the boundary with Mettray. Its proportions make it the most spectacular megalithic monument in the department. The rectangular structure follows the Angevin type and measures 11 metres long, 4.50 metres wide and 3 metres high.

The monument has a 10-by-3-metre chamber enclosed by a back slab and three upright stones on each side. A transverse slab, 1.70 metres wide, divides the funerary chamber from the entrance vestibule. This partition was later used as a polishing stone, although its polished surface was destroyed by vandalism in the mid-1960s. The vestibule also contains an upright block measuring 1.20 metres high and 1 metre wide, slightly offset inward on the left of the entrance; its original purpose is uncertain because it does not support another block.

Three massive capstone tables cover the dolmen. They are respectively 4.80 metres wide and 1 metre thick, 3.20 metres wide and 1.80 metres thick, and 3.20 metres wide and 0.90 metres thick, with the monument’s total mass estimated at up to 65 tonnes. Most slabs are made of white Eocene sandstone, while the central capstone and three uprights are made of puddingstone. The dolmen was probably once covered by a tumulus, but only a slight platform remains, measuring 22 metres long and 16 metres wide. The site was classified as a historic monument in 1914 and the Grotte aux Fées site was listed in 1943.

The Dolmen de Mettray was mentioned in 1805 and received its first detailed description from Joseph Gaurichon in 1910, following surveys he had carried out that year. During these investigations, bones, polished flints, including an imported axe, and undated pottery fragments with simple decorative patterns were collected, but the objects appear to have been lost since. It was consolidated in the mid-1980s after its supporting stones began leaning inward, while regular fires inside the dolmen continued to weaken the stones. Local tradition says that three fairies built it in a single night, that displaced stones return to their places by the next night, and that the person responsible may die within the year. The dating given for the monument is a typological estimate of 4000–3000 BCE.

Dolmen de Mettray is a dolmen in Saint-Antoine-du-Rocher, France. A typological estimate: 4000 BCE to 3000 BCE. No English Wikipedia article exists for it; the full text below is the French article "Dolmen de la Grotte aux Fées", shown in the original language.