Menir na courela da Casa Nova
DatedEst. 2800–1800 BCE
Photo Vanbasten 23 · CC BY-SA 4.0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
What the sources say
Le menhir de Courela da Casa Nova (en portugais : menir da Courela da Casa Nova), connu également sous le nom de menhir de Courela do Guita (en portugais : menir da Courela do Guita), est un mégalithe datant du Chalcolithique situé près de la municipalité de Montemor-o-Novo, dans le district d'Évora, en Alentejo.
Article in FrenchRead 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 na courela da Casa Nova: the whole story
In briefSources for this section
Sources for this section
The Menir na courela da Casa Nova, also known as the Menhir de Courela do Guita, is a standing stone near Montemor-o-Novo in the district of Évora, in Portugal’s Alentejo region. It belongs to the Chalcolithic period and is dated by typological estimate to 2800 BCE to 1800 BCE.
The monument stands about 8 km west of Montemor-o-Novo, close to the Route Nationale 4 (EN4), which links the municipality with Silveiras. It is a granite monolith with a conical form, measuring 2,70 m in height and 0,80 m in diameter at the base.
The standing stone was identified in 1971 and declared Monumento Nacional in 1974. Research on the megaliths around Montemor-o-Novo includes Catarina Oliveira’s 1999 book, O megalitismo. Os monumentos megalíticos em Montemor-o-Novo. Percursos na paisagem e no imaginário.
Standing stones of this western European type are relatively unusual in Spain compared with dolmens, but they are common in the northern half of the country, usually occurring alone or in small groups called cromlechs in elevated places. Portugal’s highest concentration 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 French article "Menhir de Courela da Casa Nova", shown in the original language.
Summary in EnglishSources for this section
Sources for this section
Menir na courela da Casa Nova is a menhir (standing stone) in Nossa Senhora da Vila, Nossa Senhora do Bispo e Silveiras, Portugal. Wikidata describes it as: standing stone in Montemor-o-Novo, Portugal. A typological estimate: 2800 BCE to 1800 BCE. No English Wikipedia article exists for it; the full text below is the French article "Menhir de Courela da Casa Nova", shown in the original language.
SituationSources for this section
Sources for this section
Le menhir est situé à environ 8 km à l'ouest de Montemor-o-Novo, à proximité de la Route Nationale 4 (EN4) qui relie la municipalité à la freguesia de Silveiras.
DescriptionSources for this section
Sources for this section
Le monolithe, composé de granite, mesure 2,70 m de hauteur pour 0,80 m de diamètre à la base. Il est de forme conique.
HistoireSources for this section
Sources for this section
Identifié en 1971, il est déclaré Monumento Nacional en 1974.
How this page was madeSources for this section
Sources for this section
The summary at the top of this page was written by MiniMax-M3 (2026-11-08) from the cited Wikipedia article “Menhir de Courela da Casa Nova”, translated from French. 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
- 1971
Identifié en 1971, il est déclaré Monumento Nacional en 1974.
Source
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
1 photograph, each with its author and licence
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
- 38°38′56″ N, 8°17′34″ WFor a GPS or map app: 38.64892, -8.29266
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.
Cromeleque dos Cuncos3300–2500 BCE- DolmenAnta da Herdade das Comendas4000–3000 BCE
- DolmenAnta da Herdade de Tourais4000–3000 BCE
- DolmenAnta da Velada (Comenda do Coelho)4000–3000 BCE
Great Dolmen of Comenda da Igreja4500–1800 BCE- DolmenAnta da Chaminé4000–3000 BCE
- DolmenAnta 2 da Comenda da Igreja4000–3000 BCE
- DolmenAntas Grandes do Paço4000–3000 BCE
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q51077913wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
Image files
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Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
- Cromeleque dos Cuncos0.5 km S
- Anta da Herdade das Comendas7.6 km SE
- Anta da Herdade de Tourais12 km E
- Anta da Velada (Comenda do Coelho)14 km NE
- Great Dolmen of Comenda da Igreja14 km NE
- Anta da Chaminé15 km NE
- Anta 2 da Comenda da Igreja15 km NE
- Antas Grandes do Paço15 km NE
- menir do Tojal15 km S
- Anta do Estanque15 km NE
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Text from the Wikipedia article "Menhir de Courela da Casa Nova" (French), 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