——————————— Martine Stone ———————————

Located about one kilometre south of the city Solre-le-Chateau, in a field to the left of the road that leads to the hamlet of L’Épine, they are menhirs of Landenian sandstone.

They were three originally, but one of them was broken in the nineteenth century to pave the road.

It is said that St. Martin, while a soldier of the Roman legions of Emperor Constantius II, rested on one of these stones, leaving the imprint of his back. True artisan of the rural apostolate in northern Gaul, the fourth century, St. Martin was indeed a great destroyer of pagan temples and converted many Druidic monuments into altars of Christianity.

The popular faith followed his teaching and did as he did, even in places where he had not passed. Thus the legend of Saint Martin remains attached, in France, to a large number of fountains or megaliths.

The Martines stones form a perfect alignment with the Dessus-Bise stone of Sars-Poteries and Pierre-Qui-Tourne from Sivry (Belgium).