Menir de São Paio de Antas
Also known asSão Paio de Antas Menhir
DatedEst. 2800–1800 BCE
Photo Joseolgon · CC BY-SA 4.0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
What the sources say
O Menir de São Paio de Antas, também referido como Menir de Pedra a Pé, localiza-se na freguesia de Antas, município de Esposende, distrito de Braga, em Portugal.
Encontra-se classificado como Imóvel de Interesse Público desde 1992.
Article in PortugueseRead on Wikipedia3 min readCC BY-SA 4.0
Where it sits in time
The site's dated range, placed against world reference points.
The scale is logarithmic: each step to the left is about ten times older than the last.
The full article
Menir de São Paio de Antas: the whole story
In briefSources for this section
Sources for this section
The Menir de São Paio de Antas, also called the Menir de Pedra a Pé, stands in the parish of Antas, in the municipality of Esposende, district of Braga, in Portugal. It has been classified as a Property of Public Interest since 1992. It is a megalithic monument of the menhir type, set on the hill overlooking the parish church of São Paio de Antas.
The stone is granite and has a phallic shape, with a slight lean to the south. It is 1.65 metres high. The dating suggested for it is around 3000 BC to 2000 BC. Nothing further is stated about its excavation, its original purpose or any local legends, so these remain unknown.
Two other menhirs exist in the same municipality, in the parishes of São Bartolomeu do Mar and Forjães. The monument was studied by Carlos A. Brochado de Almeida, who published a work on it in 1979, and by Vitor Oliveira Jorge, who wrote on the megalithic monuments of northern Portugal.
Menhirs of this western European megalithic type are found elsewhere on the Iberian Peninsula, where they usually stand alone or in small groups in elevated places. Most appear to date back to the Stone Age and are not usually associated with burials. In Portugal, the highest concentration of menhirs is in the Alentejo, where the Menhir of Meada is the largest on the Iberian Peninsula.
No English Wikipedia article exists for it; the full text below is the Portuguese article "Menir de São Paio de Antas", shown in the original language.
Summary in EnglishSources for this section
Sources for this section
Menir de São Paio de Antas is a menhir (standing stone) in Antas, Portugal. Wikidata describes it as: standing stone in Antas, Portugal. A typological estimate: 2800 BCE to 1800 BCE. No English Wikipedia article exists for it; the full text below is the Portuguese article "Menir de São Paio de Antas", shown in the original language.
HistóriaSources for this section
Sources for this section
Constitui um monumento megalítico do tipo menir, implantado no monte sobranceiro à Igreja Paroquial de São Paio de Antas, e para o qual se sugere uma datação em torno de 3000 a.C. a 2000 a.C..
Além deste, no concelho existem ainda outros dois menires, nas freguesias de São Bartolomeu do Mar e de Forjães.
CaracterísticasSources for this section
Sources for this section
Em granito apresenta uma configuração fálica e uma ligeira inclinação para sul. Possui as dimensões de 1,65 metros de altura.
How this page was madeSources for this section
Sources for this section
The summary at the top of this page was written by Claude Sonnet 5.5 (2026-11-06) from the cited Wikipedia article “Menir de São Paio de Antas”, translated from Portuguese. The numbers in it were checked automatically against the source text. The rest of the page is the article itself, the structured records and computed distances.
Tradition and region
About this kind of monument
Iberian menhirs
In Spain menhirs of the western European megalithic type are relatively unusual compared with dolmens, but 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 (cromlechs) in elevated places. Most appear to date back to the Stone Age. They are not usually associated with burials, though at the Menhir of Cuesta del Molino in Burgos burials were made at least 2,000 years after the menhir was raised. The Arlobi menhir is one of the most recent examples.
Portugal's highest concentration is in the Alentejo, where the Menhir of Meada is the largest on the Iberian Peninsula. The Menhir of Outeiro, near Reguengos de Monsaraz in the district of Évora, is the second largest in Portugal: a granite monolith 5.6 metres high, about a metre across and an estimated eight tonnes. It was found lying on its side in 1969 by Henrique Leonor Pina and José Pires Gonçalves and re-erected about 1970, and was classified as a national monument in 1971. A hollow in its top has been read as a urethra, so that the stone is taken as phallic; that is an interpretation, not a fact.
The Almendres Cromlech near Évora is the largest group of structured menhirs on the Iberian Peninsula, and one of the largest in Europe. It belongs to the "megalithic universe of Évora", with parallels in the Portela de Mogos cromlech. Its beginnings have been put as far back as the sixth millennium BCE, which would make it extremely early, and it was rediscovered in 1966 by Henrique Leonor Pina.
When visiting, look for stones on high ground and note which way they face.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Menhir, Wikipedia: Menhir of Outeiro, Wikipedia: Almendres Cromlech, Wikipedia: List of menhirs · CC BY-SA 4.0
From the article
Dated moments in the story
See it in 3D
An interpretive reconstruction of the monument, standing on the real ground at its exact point, under the sun for that place and season. Drag to look around it.
The reconstruction is ours, not a survey: it shows what a monument of this type looks like, at the size the record gives for this one.
Photographs
3 photographs, each with its author and licence
More photographs
Lore
Evidence & Lore
What the sources actually support — and, kept apart, what has been claimed.
What the evidence supports
Dates
Est. 2800–1800 BCEHow this date was established: Type comparisonTypical range for menhirs in Portugal; this site has not been dated itself. Standing stones are associated with the Beaker people of the European late Neolithic and early Bronze Age c. 2800-1800 BC.Source for this date
Where it stands
Portugal
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 41°36′03″ N, 8°46′01″ WFor a GPS or map app: 41.60088, -8.76698
Access is as our sources describe it; we have not visited the site to check.
Nearby
The closest sites in the Atlas, by straight line.
- DolmenRapído dolmen4000–3000 BCE
Anta da Portelagem e Mamoas do Rápido4000–3000 BCE- Menhir (standing stone)Menir de São Bartolomeu do Mar2800–1800 BCE
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Mamoa do Chão da Pica
Mamoa de Eireira
Mamoa de Aspra
Dólmen de Vile4000–3000 BCE
Anta da Barrosa4000–3000 BCE
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Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q1427734wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
Image files
- Menir de São Paio de Antas 2.jpgJoseolgonCC BY-SA 4.0
- Menir de São Paio de Antas.jpgJoseolgonCC BY-SA 4.0
- MENIR ANTAS 1.JPGJorgeguedessilvaPublic domain
Report a correctionWrong date, name, photograph or source? Tell us and it will be put right.
Lore, kept apart
Legends and claims
These are stories and claims reported by the sources. They are not evidence, and they never stand in for the dating above.
- Tradition
The stone is granite and has a phallic shape, with a slight lean to the south.
The stone is granite and has a phallic shape, with a slight lean to the south. It is 1.65 metres high. The dating suggested for it is around 3000 BC to 2000 BC. Nothing further is stated about its excavation, its original purpose or any local legends, so these remain unknown.
Source
Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
- Rapído dolmen2.5 km S
- Anta da Portelagem e Mamoas do Rápido2.5 km S
- Menir de São Bartolomeu do Mar3.6 km SW
- Mamoa do Chão da Pica20 km N
- Mamoa de Eireira23 km N
- Mamoa de Aspra23 km N
- Dólmen de Vile24 km N
- Anta da Barrosa24 km N
- Via romana de Braga a Tui - 14 marcos miliários (série capela)26 km NE
- Nécropole mégalithique de Bustelo28 km NE
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Text from the Wikipedia article "Menir de São Paio de Antas" (Portuguese), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; authors are listed in the page history. Reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read on Wikipedia · Edit history and authors