Mont Dardon et ses trois croix

Uxeau

A bare ridge in the Charolais bocage, three cement crosses and a viewpoint indicator: the Mont Dardon shows almost nothing of what it contains. Beneath the grass, excavations have found a continuous occupation from the Bronze Age, around 1200 BCE according to the excavators, to the 15^th century. In the First Iron Age, Aedui here possessed pottery of the Vix type; in the 1^st century BCE, a rampart of earth and palisade girdled the summit, no doubt for an aristocrat controlling the road to Bibracte. Then, after an abandonment, the summit became sacred again: a chapel of the second half of the 10^th century, twenty-one metres long, with a square tower of the 11^th, surrounded by children's graves that archaeologists link to practices that had remained pagan; the buildings were demolished and their stones thrown into the cistern, perhaps, it is said, on the orders of the Church. Bulliot, the excavator of Bibracte, recognised the site in 1856, Xavier Garenne dug here in 1865, and the campaigns of Henri Parriat and then Carole Crumley, from 1965 to 1979, made it a reference site for the Burgundian Iron Age. The crosses, for their part, are recent: three wooden crosses paid for by the owner, Isidore de Montchanin, and blessed on 30 April 1855 on the initiative of the parish priest of Issy-l'Évêque, each facing one of the three parishes; two fell in the wind in 1890, they were replaced in oak in 1892, then in cement in 1935.

Wikipédia — Mont Dardon ↗

Getting there : From Uxeau or Issy-l'Évêque, a small signposted road climbs to a car park near the summit; a few minutes' walk to the crosses and the viewpoint indicator. Free access all year round, picnic area; a walking circuit goes round the hill. The archaeological remains are not visible, they have been reburied; the objects from the excavations are displayed in the region, notably by the Amis du Dardon, at Gueugnon (to be checked). The site is also a paragliding launch area.

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound