“I imagine the relentless heritage protectors calling for my death and burning my house, attacking my family, are the same ones who last night tagged and desecrated a 16th century gem, our Church of St. Cornely. The mayor of Carnac (Morbihan), Olivier Lepick, announced on Sunday that the town’s church, listed as a historic monument, had been tagged. The mayor has been vilified on social networks in recent days because of the project to destroy menhirs in a commercial area.
“I believe it was Albert Einstein who said that the only two things that were infinite were the universe and human stupidity. I am deeply sad, ”said Olivier Lepick, who also posted hate messages on his account targeting him. According to the images broadcast, a tag “To shave everything like the menhirs” appears on the porch of the church. The mayor of Carnac said on Friday that his home had been placed under the protection of the gendarmerie following threats and insults.
The archaeological value of the menhirs is debated
An amateur archaeologist from Carnac said in a blog post in early June that around forty small menhirs had been destroyed in a construction site for a DIY store. Reacting to the emotion aroused by this destruction, the Regional Directorate of Cultural Affairs (Drac) of Brittany underlined the “still uncertain and in any case not major nature of the remains” found during the preventive excavations of 2015. The mayor had attested for his part, he “perfectly complied with the legislation” and also invoked “the low archaeological value” of the objects found.
On May 13, it was in this same church located in the tourist town on the Breton coast that several dozen demonstrators close to the fundamentalist Catholic organization Civitas had prevented the holding of a concert by an American organist. Two people will be tried in March 2024 for infringement of freedom of expression and willful violence.