Brittany 29

Brittany 29

Arzon_ has a modern church surmounted by a spire, and two stained

glass windows recording a vow made in 1673 by some sailors of the

place to S. Anne, during the war with Holland. The Chapel of Er Hroez

marks the spot where the body of Gildas was found. There are circles

of stones at Er-Lannig, and a good many fallen menhirs. At Graniol is

a tumulus containing an allée couverte. Another at Bilgroéz. The Butte

de Tumiac was explored and a covered avenue found in it, but was so

slovenly dealt with that the stones have collapsed.

 

SCAER (F.) chl. arr. Quimperlé. A dull town, with a vulgar modern

church. At S. Jean, about two miles distant, on a lande, is a fine

menhir. An abundant spring of Ste. Candide supplies the town, but it

has no architectural character. The Chapel of Coatdry is an object of

resort from all the neighbourhood on the occasion of the Pardon, 1st

Sunday after Trinity, and again the last Sunday in September, when very

interesting collections of costumes may be seen.

 

LE SEL (I.V.) chl. arr. Redon, is without much interest. The church is

modern. The tumulus of Chalonge is covered with trees and surrounded by

a moat.

 

SIZUN (F.) chl. arr. Morlaix. The church (S. Sulien) has a fine spire

of more simple character than those usually met with in Finistère. The

porch is renaissance. There are in the parish chapels of S. Cadoc and

S. Illtyd. The great Pardon is on the last Sunday in July. The P. of S.

Cado the last Sunday in September, and at Loc Ildut on Corpus Christi

Day. The Chapel of S. Cado is on the Monts d'Arrée.

 

_Commana._ A fine allée couverte measuring 50 ft. A dolmen and a

menhir. In the church are some gorgeously barbaric altarpieces, a mass

of carving, gilding and colour, of very late renaissance or baroque. P.

last Sunday in July. Those interested in prehistoric remains would do

well to investigate the Monts d'Arrée, over which many are scattered.

A map of the district with the monuments thereon is published in the

_Bulletin de la Soc. d'emulation des Côtes-du-Nord_, T. xxxv. (1897).

 

[Illustration: TRÉGUIER CATHEDRAL]

 

_Plouneour-Menez._ The very interesting abbey church of le Relecq lies

near a tarn, one of the sources of the river of Morlaix. The abbey

was founded on the site of the last battle fought between Judnal and

Conmore, usurper of Domnonia, 555. It takes its name from the "religou"

or bones which were found in great numbers on the battlefield. The

original settler here was S. Tanguy, disciple of Paul of Léon, but the

present church dates from 1132. The interior is a most interesting

example of 12th century work. The west front was rebuilt in the 18th

cent. On the N. side are the remains of the cloister of other monastic

buildings. P. 15th August.

 

TINTÉNIAC (I.V.) chl. arr. S. Malo. Reached by a tramline from Rennes.

Prettily situated. The church is modern. There are some old houses. A

menhir called La Roche du Diable.

 

At _Tréversien_ is the Château de la Fosse aux Loups, where the scene

is laid of Paul Féval's novel "Rollan Pied de Fer."

 

_Les Iffs_ and the Château of Montmuran may be visited from Tinténiac

(_see_ Becherel).

 

* TRÉGUIER (C.N.) chl. arr. Lannion. An old cathedral city at the

junction of the Jaudy and the Guindy. The town is on rising ground but

runs down to the water side to a little point. On the highest ground is

the cathedral, of nave and side aisles and two transepts. The church

was almost altogether constructed in the 14th cent. It was begun in

1339. It has, however, preserved an 11th cent. tower on the N. side

called de Tour de Hasting. It has the characteristic round-headed

windows and pillasters of the period. The N. transept is in this tower

and the pillars there with the Byzantine capitals and round arches

proclaim that they belong to the beginning of the 11th cent. The bases

are rudely carved, and bear the appearance of having been earlier

capitals reversed and employed as bases. But this is probably in

appearance only. What is of special interest to the visitor is the fact

that Tréguier cathedral belongs almost wholly to the Middle Pointed or

Geometrical period, which is not abundantly represented in Brittany.

The W. porch sustains a gallery, and the entrance is through a double

opening, a slender pillar supporting trefoils and sustains a quatrefoil

between them, all pierced. Above is a 2nd pointed W. window of no

particular merit: a pair of turrets with spirelets flank the western

façade. The cathedral has three towers, the northern Romanesque Tour

de Hastings, a central tower of the 14th cent. not finished, and with

a stunted cap on it, and the S. tower, above the transept of the same

date, but furnished with a naked, ridiculous spire added in the 18th

cent. The flamboyant window inserted in the transept is of the finest

quality, as are also those at the side of the transept. Happily, the

S. front of the cathedral furnishes a good object lesson in the study

of the development of tracery. Beginning at the W. end of the nave we

have two windows of the earliest description of tracery, two lights

sustaining a circle, all uncusped. The third window has two trefoil

headed lights sustaining a trefoil, but all rather clumsy in design.

Then we have the fourth window vastly in advance of the other; each

cusped light sustains a trefoil and both trefoils support a quatrefoil.

It must be mentioned, by the way, that a S. porch has been converted

into a baptistery, and the tracery in its window is modern. If we

pass on to the choir we have three windows; the first is very good,

geometric in design, but the second and third are of supreme richness

and beauty, revealing the style at its very best. Then look at the side

clerestory lights of the S. transept and its large S. window and we

see flamboyant or 3rd pointed also at its best. Then step within and

look at the second window from the west in the N. aisle of the nave,

and you see flamboyant in its decadence, when cusping was abandoned.

The S. porch is set below the flamboyant window of the S. transept

and is original, and, it must be admitted, far from pleasing. It has

a vaulted roof, the exterior being thus treated, and within sustained

by three ribs, between which is open tracery through which the eye

pierces to the vault above. The doorway into the church has statuary

about it much mutilated. The church within is fine. It is not over

lofty as are the great churches of the Isle of France and Normandy.

The pillars of the nave vary, and the moulding of the first two arches

is richer than the others. The triforium is plain till it reaches

choir and S. transept, where it is greatly enriched. The clerestory

windows are tall and good. The Romanesque pillars and stilted arches

in the N. transept should not be passed over. The choir ends in an

apse, and is seated with carved oak stalls. According to the cathedral

accounts, these were presented in 1648, but in style they appear much

older. On the gospel side of the high altar is a statue of S. Tugdual,

the founder of the see, with the appropriate inscription, "Etsi aliis

non sum apostolus, sed tamen vobis sum. Scitis quod precepta dederim

vobis per Dominum Jesum." S. Tugdual was son of Hoel and Pompeia; Hoel

was the son of Emyr the Armorican, who fled from Brittany to South

Wales in the 5th cent. Here he founded a Church, Llanhowell, near

Solva in Pembrokeshire, a very early curious structure resting on

cyclopean foundations, probably as old as the 5th cent. Tugdual and

his mother came over to Armorica, and first settled with S. Brioc, the

uncle of Tugdual, at Trebabu, not far from Brest. But Brioc returned

to Wales, where a plague was raging, to comfort the panic-stricken

inhabitants, and when he came back to Trebabu, the monks refused to

receive him, preferring the rule of a young man to one advanced in

age, whereupon Brioc departed and founded S. Brieuc. Tréguier when

Tugdual settled there was undoubtedly an ancient fortress, standing in

the fork between two rivers. He must have been a man of extraordinary

energy, for he scattered "lanns" or ecclesiastical centres throughout

Northern Brittany. But though Tugdual was the apostle to this district

and the founder of the church, he has been completely eclipsed by

S. Yves, whose monument has been reconstructed in the nave. It had

been smashed to pieces at the Revolution. The reconstruction is

eminently successful. S. Yves is, perhaps, the most popular saint in

Brittany. He was born at Kermartin, near Tréguier, in 1253, and became

ecclesiastical judge in the diocese. His, at that time, unheard of

probity in refusing bribes, and his consideration for sick and poor

gained general respect. He died on May 19th, 1303, on which day his

Pardon at Tréguier is celebrated. Every peasant who considers that he

has been wronged, who nurses a grievance, who is engaged in a lawsuit,

has recourse to S. Yves, as promptly as he who has a sick horse flees

to S. Eloi. On the N. side of the church is the Chapel du Dûc, opening

out of the aisle by three arches. An altarpiece is made up of fragments

of old carved oak. N. of the choir, entered either through a door in

the Tour de Hastings or through a gateway east of the church, is the

cloister. This was erected in 1468, and is therefore flamboyant, but

without weakness. The tower of S. Michel, 15th cent., stands outside

the town on a height. The church has been pulled down. There are some

old houses in the city, notably at the port, where is an eminently

picturesque group of two towers and two houses; one in the street is a

study in slated fronts.

 

The chapel of the old manor house of Kermartin now serves as parish

church to _Minihi Tréguier_. It is of the 15th cent. In the sacristy is

preserved a fragment of the breviary of S. Yves.

 

_Portblanc_, in the parish of Penvenan, is hoping to develop into a

watering-place. The situation is very pleasing, the sea is studded

with islands and bristles with rocks. The largest island is that of S.

Gildas, to which that Saint occasionally retired. It is rocky and has

been planted with Austrian pines. On it is a chapel of the Saint. There

is an abundant freshwater spring in the sands between the coast and the

island, only accessible at low tides. On the island is a dolmen, called

Le Lit de S. Gildas; it consists of four uprights sustaining a coverer

that measures 7 ft. by 4 ft. Near this is a rocking-stone. On another

islet the musical composer Ambrose Thomas built himself a château,

that is completely surrounded by the waves at high tide. Portblanc

was at one time far more important than it is now. It is alluded to

in _Richard II._ act ii. sc. i. On the road from _Penvenan_, opposite

to the entrance of a château, is a small menhir, 8 ft high, built

into the hedge. Another 13 ft high is near the village of Penvenan.

There is also a demi-dolmen in the parish. Penvenan church is modern

and execrable, but the little chapel at Portblanc is interesting.

Internally it possesses an arcade that appears to be Romanesque, but as

pillars and arches are thickly plastered with whitewash it is not easy

to determine their period. There is a N. transept, the wall of which

spreads outward at the base, battering considerably. The W. front and

S. front and the E. end of the chapel are flamboyant. The soil reaches

to the very eaves at the east end.

 

_Plougrescent_, a fallen menhir 19 ft. long, is near Maznoë. The parish

church is modern and very creditable. But the main object of interest