Night settles over the Prieuré Saint-Etienne and the site opens for an unusual guided visit. Visitors are led through the priory after dark, a moment outside time between imagination and the waking of the senses. The building at its heart is the oldest chapel in Morbihan, a listed Historic Monument raised in the tenth and eleventh centuries above the Oyon valley. Around it lie Gallo-Roman remains, polychrome wooden statues and wall paintings.
Tag: Religious Heritage
Chrétientés celtes, une Histoire des saints bretons
The Christianization of Brittany is the subject of this film-lecture: migrants out of Cornwall, Wales, Ireland and Scotland, and the Celtic form of worship they inspired. The account passes magical fountains and majestic cathedrals, and the many churches and chapels of the region. The famous enclosures are what that history left standing in the Breton landscape. Connaissance du monde programmes it as one date of its season at this hall.
Chapelle Notre-Dame de Locmaria by torchlight
A guide-conférencier of the Pays d’art et d’histoire Auray Quiberon Terre Atlantique opens this chapel once the light has gone. The decoration is picked out of the dark in the faisceau de la lampe torche, leaving the rest unlit. Notre-Dame de Locmaria is listed as a Monument Historique, and its polychrome roof frame and paintings are exceptional for their rarity. Les Incontournables open megaliths and chapels nearby the same way.
La colline aux clochers, Quimperlé’s upper town
Place Saint-Michel has been the heart of Quimperlé’s upper town since medieval times, under the bell tower of Notre-Dame. From its four corners a guide leads walkers towards other monuments of the town’s history, the Ursulines convent among them and the Saint-Eutrope chapel. Archaeological digs on the route have just revealed new secrets, and the walk takes them in. It sets off from the parvis of the église Notre-Dame de l’Assomption.
Visite chantée de Saint-Efflam par Marthe Vassallo
The Festival de Lanvellec et du Trégor takes its audience inside the église Saint-Efflam at Plestin-les-Grèves for a guided visit that doubles as a recital. Marthe Vassallo, one of the greatest voices of Breton music today, walks the building with Natacha Adlerfliegel, the festival’s guide conférencière. The reading of the church is broken at intervals by chants traditionnels bretons. The sung repertoire returns under the vault that framed it.
Trio Ladmirault at the Église Saint Winoc, Plouhinec
Florence Ladmirault founded the trio for her great-grandfather, the Nantes composer Paul Ladmirault, and plays beside her flautist daughter and her oboist brother. The programme is drawn from his works, transcribed by the family for their three instruments. Ladmirault studied under Gabriel Fauré, was admired by Debussy and argued for Celtic folklore. The committee restoring Plouhinec’s religious buildings brings them into the Église Saint Winoc.
Les églises Beaumanoir, une épopée en Trégor
A mantle of churches and chapels rose over the western bishopric of Tréguier and the eastern fringe of Léon at the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries. Tradition credits their features to the Beaumanoir workshop in Morlaix, and this travelling exhibition makes the case on 15 panels. The Saint Nicolas chapel in Plufur and the parish enclosure in Trédrez carry it. The Pays d’art et d’histoire du Trégor built it with Morlaix Communauté.
Pardon de Saint Winoc at Plouhinec
The Cap Sizun parish keeps a pardon for each of its churches, and this one belongs to the Église Saint-Vinoc at Plouhinec. Saint Winoc was born in Armorica, near Dol, and left for Flanders, founding the monastery at Wormhoud, under Mont-Saint-Winoc. The church has carried his patronage since the fourteenth century and holds a fragment of his relics from Bergues. The CRER, the committee for restoring religious buildings, keeps it standing.
Chapelle Saint-Quirin and its altarpiece, visit in LSF
The Culture and Heritage Department of the Pays d’art et d’histoire Auray Quiberon Terre Atlantique opens the chapelle Saint-Quirin at Brech to visitors. The sober classical building is marking its 350th anniversary, and it houses one of the finest altarpieces in Morbihan, from the late 17th century. A French sign language interpreter accompanies the guide. Les incontournables also opens megaliths and chapels elsewhere on the territory.
Erquy on Foot: Chapelle des Marins to the Sea
The Office de Tourisme leads this walk through Erquy on the theme of its réginéen religious and seaside heritage. It sets off from in front of the Chapelle des Marins and works from the town centre out to the boulevard de la mer. The guide sets the commune’s religious buildings beside its villas de bord de mer and the protected natural setting that frames them both. Children from ten upwards can follow, and a place has to be reserved.