Brittany 17

Brittany 17

Guegon._ The church is in the late Romanesque of the 12th cent., when

the style was in transition to 1st pointed. The south aisle is of 1560

and late flamboyant. In a window is stained glass representing the

apostles; it is of 1563. The tower and spire were the loftiest in the

diocese, but were struck by lightning in 1705.

 

_S. Servan._ To this parish Gobrian, Bishop of Vannes, retired in 717

and here died in 725. He was buried in his oratory. A village grew up

about his tomb that bore his name. This is now a chapelry, and the

chapel is of the 11th cent. with additions of the 15th cent. The nave

is floored, forming an upper chamber which served as a hospital for the

sick seeking health at the tomb of the Saint.

 

JUGON (C.N.) chl. arr. Dinan. A prettily situated town at the junction

of two valleys, each occupied formerly by a lake and dominated by

a strong castle at the fork. One of the lakes has been drained and

the castle has been destroyed. The church has nave and S. tower, 2nd

pointed and good. There is a curious W. doorway. Choir and transepts

are flamboyant. The church has been "restored" in execrable taste. The

road from Jugon to Dinan runs over high and dreary country, moors only

partially reclaimed.

 

LAMBALLE (C.N.) chl. arr. S. Brieuc. A little town in a plain dominated

by a ridge of granite that runs to the east and is crowned at its W.

termination by the beautiful Chapel of Notre Dame, and by a windmill

at the E. termination. In Lamballe are some picturesque old houses,

and there is a haras for the improvement of the breed of horses in

Brittany. The town possesses three churches, one of which is Notre

Dame, and was a chapel of the counts of Penthièvre, and is by far the

finest in the town, but it is now only occasionally that divine service

is performed in it.

 

The parish church of S. Jean is of the late middle pointed style,

1425, with an octagonal tower of 1420 at the base, but much later at

the crown. The church has been atrociously mutilated, all the tracery

cut out of the windows in the 18th cent. to be replaced by an iron

framework to sustain the glass. The Church of S. Martin was of early

Romanesque of the beginning of the 11th cent., but the arches to the

east show the beginning of the pointed style. The S. transept possesses

a good middle pointed geometric window. The tower was begun in 1551 and

became purely renaissance before completion. The quaint wooden porch

was added in 1519.

 

The Church of Notre Dame is a magnificent structure, and richly repays

a close study. The most ancient portions are the N. transept, with

lancet windows, the noble gateway and the W. front, together with the

arcade of the nave. But the side aisles are late flamboyant. The choir

and S. transept were erected by Charles de Blois and are admirable

examples of 2nd or middle pointed architecture at its very best. The

choir is vaulted but not the nave. To sustain the vault on the S. side

are buttresses within the church forming side chapels and pierced

with delicate tracery. There is a double triforium. The choir has a

square end lighted by a noble E. window, very tall and of only four

lights. The clustered pillars on the S. side of the choir and the piers

sustaining the central tower are remarkably fine. There is a little

flamboyant screen with a renaissance organ-case above it in the S.

aisle of the choir.

 

_S. Aaron._ On the Lande du Chêne-hut is an allée couverte composed of

13 stones, three of which are coverers, and two others lie in the soil.

The whole is 30 feet long.

 

_Meslin._ Five allées couvertes on the Lande du Gras. One is in the

middle of the Lande, one just below the mill, a third in the Champ des

Caves, a fourth at Bourdonnais. In the Lande du Gras is a menhir 10

feet high.

 

* LANDERNEAU (F.) chl. arr. Brest. An excellent centre for many

interesting excursions. The town is commercial and thriving. It

possesses a few old houses and a quaint mill. The Church of S. Houardon

has been rebuilt, but the beautiful tower and superb porch have been

preserved. The date of the porch is 1604, and the tower is of much the

same date. Landerneau was a great artistic centre in the 16th and 17th

cents., and its architects and sculptors erected the splendid work

in the Elorn valley and the region around. The style they created is

very original and deserves attention. They delighted in adorning the

churches with noble porches, bold, and often with the gable crowned

with a spirelet. Within, niches hold statues of the twelve apostles.

When all other detail is Italian, the foliage remains of flamboyant

character. The second church in Landerneau is that of S. Thomas à

Becket, 1607, small and uninteresting. To the W. is an ossuary of 1632

converted into a habitation. The valley of the Elorn presents many

scenes of considerable beauty. The rocks are of white quartz breaking

through the leafy covert of the hills.

 

_Pencran._ A steep ascent of a mile leads to this very interesting

church, with fine porch and two calvaries and a spire. The date of the

porch is 1553. The sculpture here in Kersanton stone is peculiarly rich

and delicate. Among the groups of figures may be distinguished Adam and

Eve, and the serpent, the expulsion from Paradise, Cain and Abel, Adam

delving whilst Eve spins, the Ark and the drunkenness of Noah. In the

tymphanum is the Nativity, much mutilated. Within the church are the

Descent from the Cross and the Mater dolorosa, groups carved in 1517.

 

_La Roche Maurice._ In a most picturesque situation, the church

embowered in trees on a height above the river, and a ruined castle

on a rock of white quartz. The castle belonged to the dukes of Rohan

whose eldest sons bore the title of Princes de Léon, on account of the

large family possessions in Léon. The church has a slim tower with

double galleries and two sets of open bell cages, and is an excellent

typical example of a style very common in the Department of Finistère.

Its date is 1589. The porch with some fine foliage in Kersanton stone

is of 1530-40. In the churchyard is a good ossuary of 1640. On it is

represented Death darting at all sorts and conditions of men, with the

inscription "Je vous tue tous." At the entrance to the churchyard are

three pillars that support the cross of Christ and the two thieves.

Within the church the magnificent east window with its stained glass of

1539 at once arrests the eye. It represents the story of the Passion

and reproduces that in S. Mathieu at Quimper, and that in the church

of Tourch. After the stained glass, the screen attracts attention. It

is renaissance and is the sole example left in its proper position

in a parish church in the dioceses of Léon and Quimper. P. Ascension

Day. But at Pontchrist, a ruined renaissance church by the river in a

picturesque situation, on the 4th S. in July.

 

_La Martyr._ This was the scene of the murder of Solomon, King of

Brittany, in 874. Solomon had assassinated his cousin Erispoe, who was

king, before the altar of the church of Penpont, and so won the crown

for himself. He was a contemptible creature. He proceeded to buy off

the Northmen and to promise to pay tribute to Charles the Bald, and

undertook to undo all the ecclesiastical organisation formed by Nominoe

and surrender the jurisdiction over the Breton sees to the Archbishop

of Tours, if the Pope would absolve him of the murder. But this was

too much for the Bretons to endure, they rose in revolt, headed by

Pasquitien, son of the assassinated king, and Solomon, finding himself

deserted on all hands, fled with his son towards the coast, hoping to

take refuge in England. But he was overtaken where is now La Martyr,

where he had taken sanctuary in the church, dragged forth along with

the boy and both were killed (874). For some unaccountable reason the

Bretons have regarded this despicable murderer as a saint. The tower of

the church belongs to the 13th cent. The entrance to the churchyard

is by a triumphal arch adorned with statuary. This is the earliest

of the kind in the country and belongs to the 16th cent. The porch

is remarkable for its style and for the delicacy and richness of the

sculpture. It belongs to the latter part of the 15th cent. The ossuary

is of 1619 and is attached to the porch. The interior of the church is

of the 14th cent. It had originally a fine screen in Kersanton stone,

that has been destroyed, but the basement of the parclose screens

remains. Four stained windows of 1567 represent the Passion, the

Crucifixion, the Resurrection, the Noli me tangere, the apparition of

the risen Christ to His mother, and the Ascension. Also the death,

assumption and coronation of the Virgin, and a Jesse tree. The Duke and

Duchess of Rohan are represented as the donors. The church possesses a

magnificent reliquary of the renaissance period. P. on the 2nd S. in

July. A great horse fair follows, lasting three days.

 

_S. Divy._ This church possesses a ceiling painted with a series of

subjects from the life of S. David. P. Sunday after Ascension and 2nd

S. in September.

 

_Dirinon_ (S. Nonna). The name signifies the steps of Nonna. The church

stands on very high ground. It is in the usual style of transition

between flamboyant and renaissance (1588-93). A chapel in the

churchyard contains the tomb of S. Nonna, mother of S. David, and wife

of Sandde, grandson of Ceredig, who drove the Irish out of S.W. Wales

and gave its name to Cardigan. The tomb, however, is a work of the 15th

cent. At a little distance from the village is her well (1623). At the

further end of the village is that of S. David. P. 2nd S. after Trinity.

 

_Plougastel._ The costumes of this district are very picturesque.

The men wear blue or violet jackets and three waistcoats and sashes.

The church is modern, but in the churchyard is a marvellous Calvary

(1602-4) consisting of an arcade under a platform crowded with statues,

and a frieze surrounds it, carved with subjects in bas-relief. P. at

La Fontaine Blanche, Easter Monday and the 15th August; at S. Jean on

the 24th June. By the Chapel of S. Guénolé is a rude stone, against

which barren women rub themselves in the hope of becoming mothers.

 

* LANDIVISIAU (F.) chl. arr. Morlaix. A small town on the high

road from Morlaix to Brest. It forms an excellent starting point for

several interesting excursions. The church is modern, but has a tower

and spire of 1590, partaking of the fault of all those in Léon and

Cornouailles of this period. It is thin and pinched. The date of the

superb porch is 1554. It is an interesting study, as it serves as a

link between those of pure flamboyant and such as are true renaissance.

About the great arch are subjects from the Old Testament. Within are

the twelve apostles; the corbels supporting them are curious and

varied; symbolical. For instance, one represents two drunken soldiers

carrying off two girls, one carrying a mirror, another a sceptre,

signifying that damsels with vanity or arrogance fall an easy prey. In

the cemetery outside the town is an ossuary, date about 1620. In the

town is the Holy Well of S. Divisiau, almost buried among houses. It

supplies a large public washing basin. Two ranges of an arcade surmount

it, containing ten panels that have come from some tomb of the 16th

cent. Landivisiau, with its comfortable hotel, is a good starting-place

for excursions to places where the accommodation is not all that could

be desired.

 

[Illustration: CALVARY AND OSSUARY, S. THÉGONNEC]

 

_S. Thégonnec._ This place is richly deserving of a visit with its

church, and churchyard overcrowded with piles of granite, Calvary

and ossuary and triumphal arch. The last mentioned is of 1587 and

is cumbrous but effective. These triumphal arches first made their

appearance at the close of the Gothic period. This is wholly Italian in

character. The ossuary adjoins it and belongs to a later period, but

is far purer in design, 1676-7. The façade is very rich and beautiful.

Within in a crypt is a Holy Sepulchre, life sized figures of 1702.

The Calvary dates from 1610 and represents scenes of the Passion.

The oldest portion of the church is the west doorway with the little

bell-turret rising above it; this dates from 1563. At a later date the

huge tower was erected on the south with a porch in its basement, built

between 1599 and 1610, the statues added in 1632. Above the porch is

the statue of S. Thégonnec (To-quessnac, a disciple of Paul of Léon).

The window tracery is modern and does not faithfully represent the old

tracery. The nave was built in 1777. The furniture of the church is

interesting. The pulpit, though late, is fine. A niche with shutters

painted with scenes from the Saint's life contains a statue of the

patron. Opposite is another statue of the B.V.M. with painted shutters.

The tower is heavy, and the effect of chamfering the angles very

unpleasing. To support the gallery the angles of the tower are very

massive, buttresses are added and between them the wall is reduced,

and the gallery sustained on heavy corbels. The platform is surmounted

by a dome and lantern and little side pepper-boxes. The interior effect

of the church is rich and harmonious in gold and colour, if somewhat barbaric.