Brittany 28

Brittany 28

Roscoff_ is a quaint place, with an old house or two, situated

near the sea, and commanding the Island of Batz. The church has a

very remarkable renaissance tower and spire (1550), more fantastic

than pleasing, with ships carved on it and cannons or culverins as

gargoyles. It is in three stages with galleries. The church is late

flamboyant. There are two ossuaries; one is very rich. In the church

are preserved the panels of an alabaster retable of the 15th cent. of

Flemish work. The Chapel of S. Ninian in the street is in ruins; it was

erected by Mary Stuart to commemorate her landing at Roscoff, 1548. The

hospital dates from 1573. A Chapel of Ste. Barbe is on a height. P. of

Santec, 2nd Sunday after Trinity. P. of Ste. Barbe, 3rd Monday in July.

P. in the parish church, August 15.

 

_Sibiril._ The Château of Keronzéré erected in 1458 was restored in

1602.

 

_Ile de Batz._ It takes a quarter of an hour to cross from Roscoff to

the island, and is only to be attempted when the sea is calm. The tide

here rises 30 ft. But a visit hardly repays the trouble. When Paulus

Aurelianus, a native of Glamorganshire, landed on the west coast of

Finistère, he heard that a kinsman, Withur, was living in these parts,

and had made himself count or chieftain. He went to visit him, and

found him on the Isle of Batz, very old, busy making a copy of the

Gospels with his own hand. Withur received him cordially, and advised

him to settle among the ruins of an old Roman town on the mainland.

Paulus did so, and hence the city of S. Pol de Léon. Legend says that

there was a dragon on the island, which S. Paul tamed by binding his

stole about its neck and then bidding it precipitate itself into

the sea. This is an allegorical way of saying that he put an end to

paganism in Batz. The Toul-ar-Sarpant, where the dragon is supposed

to have haunted, is pointed out, and the stole of S. Paul, a piece

of Byzantine work, is preserved in the church. It is a silk tissue,

with a blue ground worked over with white and yellow, to figure a

set of warriors facing each other, with a sort of turban head-dress

and holding falcons on their wrists, and with a dog between the legs

of each horse. A Romanesque chapel stood on the site of S. Paul's

monastery on the island. This is called the Peniti; the chapel is

ruinous and half-buried in sand. There is a lighthouse on the island.

 

SAINT RÉNAN (F.) chl. arr. Brest. Pleasantly situated in a woody basin,

through which flows the little stream of the Aberildut. The church has

a Romanesque choir, and a tower and spire, ill proportioned, of 1772.

There are some old and picturesque houses.

 

_Lanrivoaré._ The church has a tower in two stages and spire of the

usual type but erected in 1727. The church itself is flamboyant.

The chancel is Italian. In the N. transept is a singularly uncouth

flamboyant window. Above the arches into the choir, transept and nave,

the twelve apostles are painted. On the south side of the church is a

walled-in quadrangular space where, according to tradition, a whole

Christian population was massacred by pagans. No certain details exist,

and it is probable that the pagans were the Northmen, who committed

frightful atrocities in Brittany in the 10th cent. In the midst of

the enclosure is the graveyard of the unnamed saints, laid down with

polygonal and various shaped pieces of granite. It is enclosed by a

dwarf wall overlaid with pieces of slate. At the east end is a sort

of altar sustaining a cross and some fragments of carving. Before the

altar lie eight rolled boulders. These are popularly supposed to have

been loaves turned into bread. S. Huarvé asked a woman to give him

bread, and she refused. As a judgment for her hardheartedness all her

loaves were petrified. Actually these pebbles are "cursing stones,"

and such boulders exist in several chapels in Ireland, and are used for

calling down disease or destruction on an enemy. The person invoking

the curse, after a certain number of prayers turns the stone round

seven times. That these pebbles have been so employed is probable, as

the under surfaces of the stones are well rubbed. But happily this

pagan usage is no longer in resort, and the stones remain with only the

childish legend attached to them to explain their presence. S. Rivoaré,

the patron of the church, was a priest, brother of Rivanon the mother

of S. Huarvé or Hérvé, the blind bard saint. It is not unusual to see

pilgrims, also the parishioners of Lanrivoaré enter the enclosure,

take off their shoes and stockings, kneel, and recite prayers and then

pace on the slates thrice about the burial place, taking care to step

on each slab of slate, and omit none. In the village is a curious

stone cross with a clothed figure of Christ upon it. A short walk from

Lanrivoaré leads to the ruined Château of Kergroades, situated in

beautiful woods, with avenues of oak and chestnut. It is difficult to

find, and a guide must be taken. The château is in a charming position;

it is of renaissance architecture throughout, and the court of honour

front is in fair condition. But the gates are locked and admission is

not easily obtained. The patronal feast at Lanrivoaré is on the 3rd

Sunday in October, and P. at the Chapel of Lanvennec the 4th Sunday in

September.

 

SAINT SERVAN (I.V.) chl. arr. S. Malo; _see_ S. Malo.

 

SARZEAU (M.) chl. arr. Vannes. Sarzeau is the principal village or town

on the peninsula that bears its name, which divides the sea of Morbihan

from the ocean. That peninsula is some 20 miles long and 6 across, but

it has been much diminished in width by the sea which has eaten away

much of the coast. It is granitic on the west, and schist on the east,

and the granite is of a soft quality, allowing the sea to decompose

and break it up. Thus a parish church of S. Demetri has been engulfed.

A second was built further inland, and that is now almost entirely

surrounded by the sea and threatens shortly to disappear in the waves.

Formerly a forest covered the promontory, now it is sparsely wooded and

trees only flourish on the side toward the inland sea. But the climate

is equable, and vines are cultivated; this is the most northern point

reached by vineyards. Yet wine can only be made once in about three

years, and is not of a good quality. At Cohports is a menhir 12 ft.

high, and a circle of standing stones at Croen-Linden, and dolmens,

more or less ruined, at Noédic, Prat-Fetén, Trest, Kergilét, Brillac,

and Kerbley. An allée couverte 30 ft. long at Clos-Rodus. Gildas coming

from Glastonbury about 520 founded a monastery at Rhuys, and a cell

or peniti at Coetlann, afterwards called the Priory of S. Pabu, but

this has disappeared. In the town is the house in which Le Sage was

born, the author of "Gil Blas" (b. 1668, d. 1747). The church is a

horrible structure, begun in 1670 and ended in 1683. It was formerly

one vast hall, but a couple of ranges of columns were introduced in

1883 sustaining arcades, and qualifying somewhat the internal ugliness.

Externally, the pinnacles are composed of little pyramids resting on

balls.

 

The Castle of _Sucinio_ was occupied in 1218 by Duke Pierre de Dreux,

and in 1238 their son, Jean I., confined within it the baron Olivier

de Lanvaux, who had rebelled against him. This prince was fond of the

place and several of his children were born there. He took in the

forest about the priory of Coetlann or Saint-Pabu, and the greater part

of the castle that now stands was erected by him. His son John II.

continued the works, and put his treasure in its vaults. During the

War of Succession it was occupied by Charles de Blois, then taken by

Jean de Montfort, and retaken by Du Guesclin. John IV. greatly repaired

the castle, and within its walls was born Arthur of Richemond, future

Constable of France. In 1474 the Earls of Pembroke and Richemond were

imprisoned within its walls. The castle forms an irregular pentagon.

It had eight towers, but of these only six remain. The entrance to the

east is preceded by a drawbridge, and is defended by two large towers,

one of which contains the chapel. The castle, occupied in 1795 by the

Royalists, was sold as national property, and the peasant who purchased

it despoiled it of its roof and staircases, and let it fall into

complete ruin. A fee of one franc per head is charged for admission,

the money being devoted to the relief of the poor of Sarzeau.

 

_S. Gildas de Rhuys._ Near the ocean; here precipitous cliffs receive

the lashing of the Atlantic rollers. Near the drained marsh of Kerver

is a menhir 12 ft. high. Near the hamlet of Net four others, and the

remains of an allée couverte 70 ft. long and 12 ft. wide; at Clos-er-Bé

a dolmen called Meen-platt, and near Largneven a fallen menhir 15 ft.

long. The Abbey of S. Gildas was founded about 520. Gildas was the son

of Cau, prince of Alcluyd or Dumbarton; Cau and all his family were

driven south by the Picts and Saxons, and took refuge in N. Wales,

where Maelgwn Gwynedd gave them lands, and the sons for the most part

entered into religion. Not so Hywel, the eldest, a quarrelsome man, who

fell out with King Arthur, and lost his life in the quarrel. Arthur

was forced to surrender some lands in Radnorshire to the family as

blood-money, and then Gildas gave him the kiss of peace. Gildas was

a married man and had several sons, amongst whom the most noted was

Kenneth, hermit of Gower, but who came to Brittany with his father and

became a founder there. When aged thirty Gildas settled at Rhuys, and

here he wrote his scurrilous letter against the princes and clergy

and people of Britain, reviling in it in outrageous terms Maelgwn,

who had treated his family with kindness and generosity. Gildas was

on good terms with Weroch, Count of Vannes, and with Conmore, Regent

of Domnonia, and this latter richly endowed his houses. This did not

prevent Gildas from turning against him and heading a revolt which

caused the death of his benefactor. It was whilst Gildas was at Rhuys

that he was visited by S. Brendan. Although the Irish travellers

arrived in cold and snowy weather Gildas refused them hospitality;

but the Irishmen broke down the gates and forced themselves upon the

sour British abbot. Gildas died in 570, and, according to his desire,

his body was placed in a boat and thrust forth to sea. Two months

after the body was washed ashore at Arzon, at the extremity of the

headland, on March 11th, on which day a procession leaves S. Gildas,

annually, and visits the site where it was found. In 818 the monks of

Rhuys were forced by Louis the Pious to adopt the Rule of S. Benedict

and abandon their Celtic practices. In 919 they were forced to fly

from the Northmen. They hid some of the bones of Gildas in sand in his

tomb, but carried away most of his relics, and took refuge in Berry. In

1008, at the request of Geoffroi, Duke of Brittany, Felix, monk of S.

Benoït-sur-Loire, with six others came to Rhuys to restore the ruined

abbey. He rebuilt the church which was consecrated in 1032, and much

of this edifice remains. The church, in the form of a Latin cross, is

composed of two distinct parts, the nave, rebuilt in 1699, and the

choir and N. transept built by S. Felix 1010-32. The choir is apsidal,

with the tomb of Gildas behind the high altar. It is surrounded by

Romanesque columns with stilted arches, surmounted by small 11th

cent. windows. The N. transept also possesses an apse to the east,

and under a low arcade in the N. wall the tombs of S. Felix and S.

Gulstan. On the N. side of the choir on the outside let into the wall

is a curious carving representing two knights on horseback tilting at

each other. The Romanesque capitals rejected when the nave was rebuilt

have been in three cases utilised, by being inverted and turned into