Stonehenge, Wiltshire (Uk)

Pierre et mystère...

C'est en plein coeur du Wiltshire, entre Londres et la partie ouest de l'île que l'on peut partir à la découverte d'un site à la fois connu de tous mais qui demeure un mystère à plusieurs titres.

Ensemble religieux et funéraire, Stonehenge (ou Pierre de pendaison) fut élaboré entre 4000 et 2500 avant JC. Le monument de pierre circulaire marque alors l'apogée d'un endroit qui fut vraisemblablement un sanctuaire lié au culte du soleil puisque les alignements se font en fonction de l'emplacement que l'astre prend durant les deux solstices annuels.

Toutefois, l'ensemble est plus vaste et de nombreux tumuli et chemins forment un espace assez cohérent qui n'a cessé d'évoluer jusque vers - 1500. Stonehenge demeure toutefois la pièce maitresse du site avec ces alignements de pierre qui peuvent provenir, pour certaines, du Pays de Galles situé à plus de 200 kilomètres; ce qui est pour le moins étonnant au regard de la technique existante à l'époque. Les efforts qui durent être faits afin de déplacer, travailler et ériger les pierres témoignent de l'importance du bâtiment qui sera mis en forme et utilisé pendant plus d'un millénaire.

Mais nombre de questions demeurent sans réponse et les cercles de pierre furent victimes de leur succès : au cours des siècles, ils attirent les regards et les croyances multiples qu'ils font naitre oblitèrent la réalité historique. Pierres de géant, tombe de Merlin ou sanctuaire sanguinaire, le site de Stonehenge ne cesse de faire appel aux imaginaires et fantasmes les plus nombreux.

Une très belle utilisation du mystère du site demeure la fin de Tess d'Urberville de Hardy : ayant tué son cousin et repartant avec Angel, Tess est poursuivie par la police. Le couple, perdu, se retrouve alors à Stonehenge, lieu prémonitoire du sacrifice que la société réclame, faisant de la jeune femme une victime de la morale victorienne :

"Though the sky was dense with cloud a diffused light from some fragment of a moon had hitherto helped them a little. But the moon had now sunk, the clouds seemed to settle almost on their heads, and the night grew as dark as a cave. However, they found their way along, keeping as much on the turf as possible that their tread might not resound, which it was easy to do, there being no hedge or fence of any kind. All around was open loneliness and black solitude, over which a stiff breeze blew.

They had proceeded thus gropingly two or three miles further when on a sudden Clare became conscious of some vast erection close in his front, rising sheer from the grass. They had almost struck themselves against it.

"What monstrous place is this?" said Angel.

"It hums," said she. "Hearken!"

He listened. The wind, playing upon the edifice, produced a booming tune, like the note of some gigantic one-stringed harp. No other sound came from it, and lifting his hand and advancing a step or two, Clare felt the vertical surface of the structure. It seemed to be of solid stone, without joint or moulding. Carrying his fingers onward he found that what he had come in contact with was a colossal rectangular pillar; by stretching out his left hand he could feel a similar one adjoining. At an indefinite height overhead something made the black sky blacker, which had the semblance of a vast architrave uniting the pillars horizontally. They carefully entered beneath and between; the surfaces echoed their soft rustle; but they seemed to be still out of doors. The place was roofless. Tess drew her breath fearfully, and Angel, perplexed, said----

"What can it be?"

Feeling sideways they encountered another tower-like pillar, square and uncompromising as the first; beyond it another and another. The place was all doors and pillars, some connected above by continuous architraves.

"A very Temple of the Winds," he said.

The next pillar was isolated; others composed a trilithon; others were prostrate, their flanks forming a causeway wide enough for a carriage and it was soon obvious that they made up a forest of monoliths grouped upon the grassy expanse of the plain. The couple advanced further into this pavilion of the night till they stood in its midst.

"It is Stonehenge!" said Clare.

"The heathen temple, you mean?"

"Yes. Older than the centuries; older than the d'Urbervilles! Well, what shall we do, darling? We may find shelter further on."

But Tess, really tired by this time, flung herself upon an oblong slab that lay close at hand, and was sheltered from the wind by a pillar. Owing to the action of the sun during the preceding day the stone was warm and dry, in comforting contrast to the rough and chill grass around, which had damped her skirts and shoes.

"I don't want to go any further, Angel," she said, stretching out her hand for his. "Can't we bide here?"

"I fear not. This spot is visible for miles by day, although it does not seem so now."

"One of my mother's people was a shepherd hereabouts, now I think of it. And you used to say at Talbothays that I was a heathen. So now I am at home."

He knelt down beside her outstretched form, and put his lips upon hers.

"Sleepy are you, dear? I think you are lying on an altar."

> un site intemporel et un nouveau musée à découvrir :
https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/stonehenge/