In the marshes of Rochefort, a legend tells that a woman discovered in a cave and taken for a witch, then made numerous predictions which will prove correct!
The Béligon site today is: a water tower, a large green meadow and trees located just at the northern exit of Rochefort, near the highway.
– During the Gallo-Roman era, the site of Béligon was covered in forests with the nearby Charente, whose mouth was then a vast gulf. A deserted place which had a bad reputation and which one did not venture into. The region was then torn by the tyranny of the Romans and the cruelty of the Normans. It was there, the legend goes, that a young Gaul found a cave quite deep and hidden by vegetation. Inside, he discovered a “woman with withered features, a haggard complexion, graying hair and speaking several languages”. His body is thin and gaunt. She is taken into the middle of the crowd and immediately mistaken for a witch…
To defend herself, the woman launches into a long premonitory speech in the form of a curse addressed to her future assassins. It announces the invasion of the Arabs, the plague in Constantinople, an attack of locusts destroying the crops, hailstorms killing the livestock, earthquakes… “Curse to your race, I tell you”
Most of his predictions would prove correct and come to pass in the following centuries.
For having said so many truths that were so hard to hear, someone present threw an ax at his head and split his skull. – And inevitably, it is said that his soul continues to haunt the place…And inevitably, it is said that his soul continues to haunt the place…
This is a legend… and its veracity is entirely relative. We have doubts about its authenticity! It appears in sources in the 19th century and notably in a newspaper Les Tablettes des deux Charentes (1837) under the pen of René-Primevère Lesson: a famous naturalist and ornithologist from Rochefort. Also known for being facetious! Where does Lesson get this legend from? The question remains.
