The Pierre levée at Poitiers: a dolmen with graffiti by cartographers and draughtsmen

About a kilometre east of Poitiers lies a dolmen, a large limestone megalith placed on some smaller stones, hence the name ‘Pierre levée’ (‘Raised stone’). Students and travellers used to climb onto the stone and scratch their name into it. Among these ‘tourists’ were some famous sixteenthcentury cartographers and draughtsmen, such as Hogenberg, Mercator, and Ortelius. The draughtsman Joris Hoefnagel visited Poitiers in 1561 when he and his companions inscribed their names in the stone, too, and Hoefnagel made a drawing of it. The drawing was later printed in the Braun & Hogenberg town atlas. On the stone, which broke into two pieces in the 18th century, various names are still legible; but those probably date from the 19th century. As was established during a visit in 2011, none of the earlier names is still discernable.