Caixa de Rotllan
View of the Caixa de Rotllan
|
|
 Location within France
|
|
| Location | Arles-sur-Tech |
|---|---|
| Region | Pyrénées-Orientales, France |
| Coordinates | 42°28′52″N 2°36′04″E / 42.48111°N 2.60111°E |
| Type | Dolmen |
| Length | 3 m |
| Width | 2 m |
| Height | 1.5 m |
| History | |
| Material | Granite |
| Periods | Neolithic/Chalcolithic |
| Site notes | |
| Excavation dates | None |
| Public access | Free |
The Caixa de Rotllan (meaning "Roland's Tomb" in Catalan language) is a dolmen in Arles-sur-Tech, Pyrénées-Orientales, South of France, dating back to the Neolithic period, during the second half of 3rd millennium BC.
A legend holds that Roland lived in Vallespir and that, after his death at the Battle of Roncevaux Pass, his horse Veillantif carried Roland's corpse back to Vallespir and buried him under this dolmen. Dolmens are actually tombs, but they were erected many centuries before the legendary knight's adventures.
The Caixa de Rotllan is made of three upright stones making a H-shape, supporting a thick roofing stone and delimiting a rectangular, medium-sized chamber. The entrance faces South-East, as many other dolmens do in Pyrénées-Orientales. This building is listed as a Monument historique since 1889 but has never been excavated by archaeologists.
The Caixa de Rotllan is one of the 148 dolmens listed in the Pyrénées-Orientales department. Some of them have been destroyed or attested by old sources but lost and not yet found by modern scholars. They are all located in hilly or mountainous areas of the department, usually on a mountain pass, a ridge or a high ground.
As the others, this dolmen is situated on a ridge line. In the southern side of the Canigou, at 830 metres (2,720 ft) above sea level, just beneath a granitic chaos in the historical and geographical region named Vallespir it stands on the edge between French communes Arles-sur-Tech and Montbolo.
...
Wikipedia