Brittany 14

Brittany 14

On the further side of the river is Lancieux; the church contains a

Roman cippus but is otherwise destitute of interest and will shortly

be rebuilt. The vast bay west of Lancieux is divided in twain by the

tongue of land on which is S. Jacut. Here the tide goes out as much

as 5 kilometres. To the north of the promontory of S. Jacut are the

islands of Les Ebbiens on which is a battery.

 

Off Dinard is the fortified isle of _Cézambre_, but visitors are not

suffered to land there. Here was a monastery founded by S. Brendan

about 524, and when S. Malo arrived from South Wales, he was hospitably

received by Festivus, the Irish monk left there in charge. A Chapel of

S. Brendan was much resorted to by girls in want of husbands, who vowed

candles to the Irish saint if he would supply them with a suitor. But

since the military authorities have denied access to the island, the

damsels have had to aspire at home.

 

DOL (I.V.) chl. arr. S. Malo. A dull town, formerly a cathedral city,

and for three hundred years seat of an archbishop. The few old houses

in the town are not particularly interesting. The former cathedral, now

parish church (S. Samson), belongs for the most part to the 13th cent.

The west part is flanked by two towers of the 14th and 15th centuries.

That to the south has retained some remains of the original Romanesque

church. King John of England burnt the church. At the crossing of

the transepts a third tower of the 13th cent. was begun but never

completed. The N. side of the church formed part of the fortifications

of the town, and the wall of the chapels of the choir is surmounted by

a crenilated parapet. The choir has a square east end like an English

church, and with a magnificent 2nd pointed or geometrical E. window

full of glass of the same period, badly restored. It represents the

Last Judgment, scenes of the Passion, and the Life of S. Samson. The

pillars of the nave belong to the original Romanesque church. After

it was burnt they were retained, but disengaged columns were grouped

about them and bound to the cylinders by bands of iron. Those in the

side aisles are meaningless, supporting nothing. Behind the high altar

is the Chapel of S. Samson. In the wall at the side are openings into

a chamber into which the insane were admitted, and kept for a while

enclosed near the tomb of the Saint, in hopes of a cure. In the N.

transept is the sadly defaced tomb of Bishop Thomas James (1504) and

of his brother, a canon. It was a peculiarly rich piece of renaissance

work, by the Florentine family of Juste, two brothers of which were

brought to Dol to execute it. After its completion they settled at

Tours. It was barbarously mutilated at the Revolution. The S. transept

has a rich porch, the statuary in which has been recently restored.

 

About a mile and a half out of Dol on the Combourg road is the Pierre

du Champ Dolent, a menhir 27 feet high above ground and sunk nearly as

many feet beneath the surface. It is dwarfed by a huge crucifix planted

on the top. Near by is _Carfeuntin_ with a hideous modern church

replacing one of the 13th that has been wantonly destroyed. Here is the

Holy Well of S. Samson.

 

_Mont Dol_ is a height rising out of the great marsh of Dol, that was

overflowed by the sea in 709. This was a prehistoric site and numerous

flint weapons are there found. The church of the 11th, 12th and 15th

centuries contains curious mural paintings.

 

DOUARNENEZ (F.) chl. arr. Quimper. Prettily situated on a tidal creek

that has its mouth almost closed by the Isle of Tristan. The railway

station is high above the town and the ravine is crossed by a viaduct.

The town itself is given up to sardines and is pervaded by bad odours.

It has a very bad modern church. That of S. Helene is of the 17th

cent. with glass of the period. The Chapel of S. Michel is of 1664 and

has a painted ceiling. Douarnenez was the headquarters of the brigand

Fontenelle during the wars of the League. He had his castle on the

island of Tristan where he crowded his prisoners into the dungeons so

dense that they could not lie down, and kept them there till they died,

in a condition of indescribable filth. As one died, he made the rest

throw him out at the window into the sea. Some, who he thought might

ransom themselves, he placed in metal chairs over slow fires, others

he left in bitter winter weather immersed to their necks in barrels of

cold water. He carried on his barbarities, not for any cause, though

he professed himself to be a leaguer. He warred on all alike for the

sake of rapine and out of wanton love of slaughter. He was finally

broken on the wheel in 1602. Douarnenez is connected by rows of houses

with _Ploaré_, where is a fine church very late flamboyant resolving

itself into renaissance, and typical of a style very general throughout

Finistère. A singular feature is to be noted in the pinnacles about

the spire. Two of these have tall crocketed spirelets, but taste was

changing whilst the tower was approaching completion, and the two

other pinnacles are truncated Italian lanterns. The tower was begun

in 1555. The side aisles are gabled over the aisle windows, and as

usual in Breton churches there is no clerestory. The buttresses are

surmounted by pinnacles that are crowned with cupolas. The cusping has

gone from the tracery, a sure mark of decay of the style. There is a

fine porch with niches, but no statues. A fireplace and chimney for

heating the water for baptisms, shows that this usage was carried on to

the latter half of the 16th cent. As we shall see under Le Juch there

is a later example.

 

[Illustration: PLOARÉ]

 

_Poullan._ The church (S. Cadvan) is flamboyant verging into

renaissance. It has a thin tower with two galleries, and a pretty

porch. The side aisles are peculiarly narrow. The capitals of the

pillars are quaintly carved. The octagonal vestry is of the 17th cent.

Several dolmens. A menhir near the seamark at Kermenhir. P. 1st S. in

September.

 

_Le Juch._ Renaissance tower. Fireplace in the church for warming the

water for baptism, as late as 1710. The east window has in it 16th

cent. glass representing the Crucifixion.

 

_Guengat._ A small late flamboyant church. Ossuary adjoining the porch

1557. Owing to the fall of the tower in 1700, the church was restored

in 1706. It contains some fine glass of the 16th cent. representing the

Last Judgment and the Passion. The date is 1571. The porch flamboyant.

Curious uncouth and late tracery in two gabled windows beside the

porch. The third has flamboyant tracery. A Calvary in the churchyard

is of the 16th cent. In the presbytère are preserved a beautiful

chalice, and a processional cross of 1584. P. de S. Ivy, 2nd S. in May.

Patronal feast last S. in August.

 

_Kerlaz._ Church (S. Germain) picturesque and interesting. It has

a crocketed spire with subsidiary turrets and spirelets partially

detached. The church contains old glass in the east window representing

scenes of the Passion and S. John the Baptist presenting the donor and

a canon. Font of 1567, tower 1660, Calvary 1645, lychgate 1558.

 

ELVEN (M.) chl. arr. Vannes. The Chapel of S. Germain is of the 16th

cent. At the door is a sarcophagus supposed to be that of S. Germain.

This Germanus is probably not the Great Bishop of Auxerre, but the

nephew of S. Patrick, who was tutor of S. Brioc, and finally apostle of

the Isle of Man. Elven is a good place whence to explore the Lande de

Lanvaux. This upland ridge is strewn with prehistoric remains, dolmens

and menhirs, notably La Loge aux Loups, a dolmen; an allée couverte Le

Léty, a menhir at Carhaix, another at Villeneuve. An allée couverte

at Villepierre, two dolmens in the wood at Coetby and two menhirs

called Baboun et Baboune at the outskirts of the wood of Lanvaux. At

S. Guyomard a menhir 22 feet high. At Plaudren beside the road, La

Quenouille, about 18 feet high. Near it numerous remains of dolmens

and fallen menhirs. Another group at Plaudren, a fallen menhir, 16

feet high, and two others prostrate of less height, an allée couverte

called Mein-gouarec near a curious rock shaped like a crouching lion.

 

ETAPLES (C.N.) chl. arr. S. Brieuc. A watering-place in some repute

with good sands. The church is of the 15th cent., but with a tower of

1786. Etaples is in the ancient county of Goelo.

 

_Lantec._ The parish church (S. Oswald) is a mean modern structure.

How the great Northumbrian king should come to be here commemorated

is hard to understand. He is represented over the altar as a chubby,

smirking boy. The Chapel of N.D. de la Cour is a noble structure of

1460, of the finest and purest flamboyant, before it became degenerate

and adulterated with Italian detail. Chancel and side aisles are

vaulted. The nave has modern wood vaulting. The superb east window is

filled with the finest stained glass, silvery in tone, with the colour

set in it as jewels, after the English school, and entirely different

from the prevailing Breton character of glass which, like the French,

is overladen with colour. The modern glass in some of the windows is

bad as bad can be. The tracery of the chancel windows is admirable.

There is a second stained window, old, in the S. transept. In the

chapel is the tomb of Guillaume de Rosmadec, 1608, in kersanton stone.

P. 16th August, when pilgrim fishermen make the circuit of the chapel

barefooted and in their shirts alone.

 

_S. Quay_ is a watering place.

 

LE FAOU (F.) chl. arr. Châteaulin, at the head of a long arm of the

sea. It is reached from Henvec station. The church is of the 16th cent.

late flamboyant, with a slender unsatisfactory tower, 1626-40. The

porch is of 1593, with statues of the apostles.

 

_Rumengol._ The story goes that as King Grallo was riding with S.

Winwaloe from Is, which had been overwhelmed by the sea, and reached

the hill that commanded the valley, he saw a fire on the height

opposite, and found that the pagan inhabitants were holding a sacrifice

on the rou-men-goulon, the Red Stone of the Dawn. He vowed to build

there a church. This is represented in the E. window. The church is

late flamboyant with renaissance detail. The porch is of the usual type

and contains, over the door, an adoration of the Magi. A hundred paces

to the east is the Holy Well. In the little structure is a bas-relief

of the Annunciation, and statues of S. Winwaloe and S. Fiacre. One

of the most largely attended Pardons of Brittany takes place here on

Trinity Sunday, the pilgrims arrive over night and sleep in the church.

 

* LE FAOUËT (M.) chl. arr. Pontivy. Fine timber and slate Halles.

The church of the 16th cent. is of little interest, but the chapels of

Ste. Barbe, S. Fiacre, and S. Nicolas in Prisiac, are well deserving

of a visit and a study. Ste. Barbe is planted on a rock above a pretty

valley, and is reached by a staircase of stone. A bridge connects the

upper platform with another chapel, that of S. Michel. The wooden

belfry is on the platform above. The chapel of Ste. Barbe is of fine

flamboyant work, 1489. The structure is curious: there is no nave,

it is composed of long transepts and a small budding chancel. It was

vaulted in 1512. Some very fine old glass remains, side by side with

some very villainous modern stuff. Below, in the valley, is the well of

Ste. Barbe. The P. of Ste. Barbe is on the last Sunday in June.

 

[Illustration: S. FIACRE]

 

S. Fiacre is a superb example of the architecture of the 15th cent. The

main spire, with its flamboyant gallery, is corbelled out on the west

gable and is tied by two flying buttresses to two smaller towers with

spirelets. The S. porch is vaulted and has niches within. The chapel

contains very fine glass of 1550, but falling to pieces and fragments

detaching themselves with every storm. The subjects represented are

the Nativity, the Passion, and the legend of S. Fiacre. A roodscreen

of 1480 has been badly "restored" and painted. The condition of

the magnificent glass is disgraceful. The chapel is a "monument

historique," so that the curé can do nothing to it, and the State will

do nothing for its preservation. The foliage carving in granite is

admirable for its boldness. The Chapel of S. Nicolas in Prisiac has a

very fine roodscreen, quite perfect and untouched, covered with curious

paintings; it is, however, later than that at S. Fiacre. There is here

also some good old glass. The chapel is in a sad condition of neglect.

It possesses a broken wheel set with bells for ringing by pilgrims

to call the attention of the Saint to their prayers. Le Faouët may be

reached from either Gourin or Quimperlé. The P. at S. Fiacre is on the

4th Sunday in July. S. Caradec Trégomel, a splendid late Gothic chapel,

one of the finest monuments of 15th cent. in Brittany.

 

* FOUESNANT (F.) chl. arr. Quimper, with nice sands. A pleasant

holiday resort. The costumes of the women are very pretty. The church

is Romanesque, but was frightfully maltreated in the 18th cent., when

large round-headed windows were introduced. The tower was struck by

lightning and rebuilt at the same time. The piers are 11th cent. From

above them rise pilasters that sustain relieving arches under which

are the clerestory windows. The capitals have byzantine-looking work

on them. The Chapel of Ste. Anne, in the midst of trees, was built in

1685, and has a tower for two bells and spire between two detached

turrets surmounted by cupolas. This chapel is the object of visit when

the Pardon takes place on July 28. Peasants and girls in white arrive

by water in boats with their crosses and banners.

 

_S. Evarzec._ Here was a commandery of the Knights of Malta at Moustoir(13th cent.). A dolmen and menhir.