La nécropole mérovingienne de Civaux

Civaux

At Civaux you enter a cemetery that contains another. What strikes you first is the enclosure: it is made of Merovingian sarcophagus lids driven into the ground, upright, packed tightly against one another like the stones of an alignment. Behind it, hundreds of sarcophagi, some left in place, others arranged in rows. Almost all are trapezoidal, wider at the head than at the feet, and many lids bear the decoration of the Poitou workshops, three bands in relief, sometimes a cross, a chi-rho, a trident, an anchor, a fish; a few still bear a name, Maria, Pientia. Who these dead were is unknown: a Christian population of the 6th-8th centuries, so numerous that historians estimate the cemetery received between seven and ten thousand burials. Drawings from the 18th century show that it was then much larger; the following centuries took its troughs to build walls or to serve in farm work. A chapel rose in the centre at the end of the 14th century; the 1961 excavations found coins of the 13th-14th centuries there. No king here, no known saint: Civaux shows what the royal necropolises have lost, the image of a Merovingian world that had itself buried, by the thousand, under the same stone.

Wikipédia — Nécropole mérovingienne de Civaux ↗

Getting there : Free access all year round, at any time: it is still the village cemetery, so behave accordingly. The archaeological museum of Civaux, in the village, offers audio guides and guided tours of the necropolis (days and times to be checked). Allow half an hour for the necropolis, more with the museum; the site combines easily with the churches of Poitiers.

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

Ambient sound