LE KREISKER, S. POL DE LÉON* S. POL DE LÉON (F.) chl. arr. Morlaix. An ancient cathedral town, but the diocese has been united to that of Quimper. The cathedral has two western towers and spires and façade of 1st pointed. The nave is entirely 2nd pointed and has a very beautiful arcade. The cleristory is quite simple, mostly with 1st pointed windows. The side aisles have an arcade under the windows. The transepts are double,i.e.with aisles to the east, fine 2nd pointed. The E. aisle of the S. transept contains very bad flamboyant windows. The choir, ending in an apse, is flamboyant 1431-50, and contains fine carved oak stalls of 1512. The choir has double aisles, N. and S. On the N. side is the Chapel of S. Paul, with his skull, hand, and bell in shrines. The pillars and vaulting of the S. aisle may be noticed.The Chapel of Kreisker possesses a tower and spire that are supposed by Bretons to be the glory of Finistère. It is badly proportioned; the spire and spirelets overload the summit of the tower. It may be regarded as curious and a clever bit of architecture, but it is not pleasing.This tower is central. The windows are all flamboyant but affect an earlier type. The chapel has triforium and circular cleristory windows on the S. side but none on the N. There is a noble N. porch very richly carved. A very rich W. window. The E. window contains bad modern glass reproducing old figures of Breton saints. The S. side has an arcade under the windows with small lights pierced at intervals. There is a good piscina in the S. aisle. The Church of S. Pierre is now turned into a cemetery chapel. It is 15th cent. but has a baroque west front. Ossuaries (small) are in the wall surrounding the cemetery. On the way to Roscoff, just beyond the railway, is an allée couverte or dolmen.Roscoffis 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-buriedin 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;seeS. 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 ofSuciniowas 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 ofVannes, 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 thehigh 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 bénitiers; another is thrown outside. A beautiful statue of Gildas by Vallet stands over the tomb. It is that of a sweet and placable saint, not of a rancorous and revengeful man. In the S. transept, which was destroyed by a storm and has been rebuilt, is a huge barbaric retable. The treasury contains a silver bust containing part of the skull, and reliquaries for arm and thigh bones of the Saint; some of these reliquaries are of the 15th cent. There is also a mitre of the 15th cent. which is erroneously supposed to have been that of Abelard. The conventual buildings are of the 18th cent. and are occupied by a religious order which receives female paying guests during the season. Abelard, born in 1079, became a Benedictine monk in 1117, and was elected abbot of S. Gildas de Rhuys in 1125. But the strictness of his rule roused the monks against him. "The life of the monks," he wrote, "was indisciplined and frightful. The abbey gates were decorated with the feet of stags, bears and boars. The monkswere roused from their slumbers by no other signal than the hunter's horn and the baying of hounds. The natives were barbarous and disorderly." The community revolted against any attempt to bring it to discipline, and Abelard believed that his life was in danger; he accordingly fled in 1138 and died at Cluny in 1142.By following the road behind the church, along the convent walls, the Chapel of S. Bieuzy is reached, and a path to the right leads to the little Baie de Portas, where in the rock is an impression like that of a horse's hoof. Legend says that Gildas left the Isle of Houat on a flying horse that landed at this spot. A stair cut in the rock leads to the Baie de Saint Gildas, where is a spring and over it a statue of the Saint.Arzonhas 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 architecturalcharacter. 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 theBulletin de la Soc. d'emulation des Côtes-du-Nord, T. xxxv. (1897).TRÉGUIER CATHEDRALPlouneour-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.AtTréversienis the Château de la Fosse aux Loups, where the scene is laid of Paul Féval's novel "Rollan Pied de Fer."Les Iffsand the Château of Montmuran may be visited from Tinténiac (seeBecherel).* 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, alluncusped. 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. Theclerestory 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 thoughTugdual 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 ofKermartin now serves as parish church toMinihi 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 inRichard II.act ii. sc. i. On the road fromPenvenan, 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 theirperiod. 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 in the parish is the chapel of S. Gonery. The tower is early 1st pointed, and was never completed. Above it is now a leaning wood and lead spirelet. The chapel consists of a single nave, with chancel and two chapels, one on each side of the chancel. The glory of the chapel is its magnificent painted ceiling in ten lower ranges, representing on one side the incidents of the Nativity, on the other those of the Passion. Above these ten more compartments give the life of Our Lord in glory. These subjects are curious; the most remarkable perhaps is the reception of Adam and Eve into Heaven by Christ. In the body of the church is a noble carved oak buffet, to serve as cupboard to the relics of S. Gonery. It has on it the Twelve Apostles and the Annunciation. The church, with the exception of the tower, is 15th cent., and the paintings are of the same period. Unhappily through neglect of attention to the roof, those near the tower are seriously injured by the wet. On the N. side of the chancel is the fine renaissance monument of Bishop Guillaume de Halgoët, 1599; on it is a recumbent figure of the prelate. Some fragmentsof stained glass are in the windows representing the Annunciation and Christ on the Cross. The S. porch is bold and curious, a pent-house roof sustained on huge granite corbels. Under the tower are the tomb and the "boat" of S. Gonery. The tomb is reached by descending under a structure of the 17th cent. Those afflicted with fever obtain earth from it which they tie up in little packets, and return when well. Consequently several of those little parcels of earth may be seen on the tomb. On the opposite side is the boat, in which S. Gonery and his mother Libouban came over from Britain. It is a curiously shaped stone trough, and probably actually was the sarcophagus of the Saint. It nearly resembles the stone coffins of the Merovingian period and of the 11th cent. Statues of S. Gonery and of S. Libouban are one on each side of the altar, the latter erroneously marked as N.D. de Bon Secours; the statue of the Virgin is of alabaster, and of the 15th cent., and stands on an altar in the S. chapel. The seacoast at Plougrescent is bold and fine with noble cliffs. The day of S. Gonery is July 18, but the P. is on the 4th S. in July.Trinité-Porhoet(M.) chl. arr. Ploermel. This place takes its name from the county of Porhoet, which was formed after the expulsion of the Northmen in the 10th cent. Josselin afterwards became the seat of the Count. There was a priory here founded by the monks of S. Jacut, in or about 1050. The old parish church was pulled down in 1806 and 1807 toserve for the construction of the halles. La Trinité, which was the priory church, is now that of the parish. It retains some Romanesque pillars and arches. The choir was partly rebuilt in 1742 and 1787, when also the tower and transepts were erected. This church is an object of pilgrimage. The P. is on Trinity Sunday.Taulé(F.) chl. arr. Morlaix. On the line to S. Pol-de-Léon. Near this is Loquenolé (S. Winwaloe), with a most interesting church containing some of the earliest work in Brittany, very early 11th cent., and possibly of 10th. Observe the curious rude sculpture.Henvichas in its church paintings representing the story of S. Maudetus (Mawes) and his sister S. Juvetta.Uzel(C.N.) chl. arr. Loudéac, is not a place of much interest. The church is of the 17th cent., altered in the 18th. The Chapel of Bonne Nouvelle is of the 16th cent. Some ruins of the old château of Uzel remain, and there is a house of 1620.Merléachas a Chapel of S. Jacques of the 14th cent. at the village of Saint Léon. The central east window is perhaps the finest in the Department; the tracery is all in granite, and it contains stained glass representing eight scenes in the Life of the Virgin, and eight scenes from that of S. Jacques. There are other windows representing the Conception and the Assumption. The ceiling is painted (15th cent.) with subjects from the Life of our Lord and the legend of S.James, and a procession of angels forming a concert on seventeen instruments of music. For a study of the shapes of musical instruments of the 15th cent. this chapel should be visited.Quillio.The church contains the woodwork transported thither from the abbey of Bon-repos. Above the altar is a suspended Pyx.Grâce.An allée couverte at the hamlet of Bois, running N. and S. and 18 ft. long. It is composed of blocks of quartz. There are eight supporters on each side and five coverers, but only one of these latter is in place.VANNES* VANNES (M.) chl. d'arr. Capital of the Department, and seat of a bishop. The town is not remarkably picturesque. The walls remain in places but built into, and only two gates with flanking towers have been spared. The cathedral is very disappointing, and there are few picturesque old houses. Vannes was the capital of the warlike Veneti, whom Cæsar crushed inB.C.57, when he butchered all the chiefs and leading nobles, and sold their families into slavery. It became a Roman town, called Duriorigum, and six Roman roads struck over the country from it to Locmariaquer, Hennebont, Corseul, Rennes, Rieux, and Arzal. A Roman necropolis has been found on the site of the artillery barracks. At the beginning of the 5th cent. many towns dropped their particular names and assumed those of the peoples to which they formed centres, and then the place took the name which it has since borne in Breton, Gweneth. Christianity having made some progress among the Veneti, in465 Perpetuus, metropolitan of Tours, assembled a council at Vannes, and consecrated to it a bishop, Paternus. The city remained Gallo-Roman; but throughout the 5th and 6th cents. British emigrants arrived in such numbers, that in 590, Regalis, the bishop, complained that he was, as it were, imprisoned within the walls of the town by them. These colonists had their own laws, princes, and ecclesiastical system, and would not recognise the bishop. In 496 we hear of an Eusebius, king or governor of the town. An alliance was entered into between the Armoricans and the Franks, and Clovis and his successors were recognised as overlords. Whether the British chieftain Weroch got into the city and established himself there is doubtful, but his son Macliau did so, on his death. Macliau was in orders, and married. On the death of the bishop he induced the clergy and people to elect him as their bishop, and to satisfy their prejudices dismissed his wife. No sooner, however, was he firmly seated on the episcopal throne, than he sent for his wife and children. About eight years later his brother Canao, secular chief of the Bretons, revolted against the Franks, whereupon Macliau proclaimed himself Count as well as Bishop. He was killed along with two of his sons in 577. Pepin occupied the city in 753, and Louis the Pious visited it at the head of an army in 818. In 843 Nominoe, governor of Brittany, shook off the yoke of Frank allegiance. Then came the invasion of the Northmen, and the disappearanceof the Counts of Vannes, till 937, when Alan II., Barbetorte, friend of Athelstan, was recognised as Count, and transmitted the title to his descendants. The town walls were rebuilt in 1270. In less than a century the War of Succession broke out and Vannes had to stand four sieges in one year, 1342. John IV., conqueror at Auray in 1364, repaired the walls, and extended them. The cathedral church of S. Peter was burnt by the Northmen in the 10th cent. and was rebuilt in the 11th at the same time as the abbey church of S. Gildas de Rhuys. But the tower was added in the 13th cent. and the whole of the nave and transepts, the former in 1452-76 and the latter in 1504-27, consequently in the flamboyant style. The nave has no side aisles, but chapels between the buttresses. In 1537 Archdeacon Jean Danialo who had been in Rome, returned enthusiastic in favour of pagan architecture, and to show the canons what he admired, constructed the circular Chapel of the B. Sacrament on the north side, a beautiful structure for its style. But at the same time the chapter was building its cloisters, and they are full flamboyant tending to renaissance. The apsidal Chapel of N.D. and S. Vincent was erected at the same time also, and is thoroughly Italian. In the meantime the old Romanesque choir showed signs of falling, and was pulled down in 1770 and the present choir was built and finished in 1776. Then the chapter set to work to transform the nave. All the tracery was hacked out of the windows, and a plainbarrel vault was added. The W. tower has had a spire added to it recently, and the W. front was "restored" in feeble style in 1868-73. Then the architect was entrusted with filling the windows with tracery; and he, not comprehending the character of the nave, inserted tracery of a century earlier in style. The N. transept had a fine doorway, but it has been blocked up for a hideous baroque retable and altar to stand against it. Thus the church, never very fine, has lost much of its character and interest. In the N. transept is the tomb of S. Vincent Ferrier, and above it his bust in silver. Vincent was born at Valence in 1357, and in 1374 entered his novitiate among the Dominicans. He was sent to Barcelona and Lerida to give lessons in philosophy, but threw up the study and devoted himself to preaching, and rambled through France, Spain, Italy, England, Scotland and Ireland, as a revivalist preacher, but, of course, in such countries as did not understand his tongue, the effect of his sermons was lost. He spent two years in Brittany, where he cannot have been of any use, as the peasants could not comprehend French. He died at Vannes on the 5th April 1419, but the Pardon is on the 1st Sunday in September. The other churches of Vannes are not worth looking at. That of S. Paternus was built in 1727. The Museum of Archæology of the Societé Polymathique du Morbihan contains many interesting objects from the dolmens and tumuli of the Morbihan.Vannes is situated at the distance of 5 kilometresfrom the Morbihan, the inland sea that gives its name to the Department. Almost every day two little steamers leave the port for the islets, but the time of starting depends on the tide. The Gulf of the Morbihan is some 8 miles long and about 15 miles wide. It communicates with the sea by a narrow mouth only three-quarters of a mile across. It is nowhere deep; from 45 to 60 ft. is its depth. It is studded with low islands, of which at the outside forty are inhabited and some fifty are cultivated. The inhabitants live by fishing, and all the men are sailors.This inland sheet of water is cut off from the ocean by two great crab's claws, the peninsula of Sarzeau and that of Locmariaquer. The scenery is by no means bold; sandy shores and low islets, and mud banks at the fall of the tide. The archipelago is, however, very interesting because of the numerous prehistoric remains on the islands.TheIsle of Arzis about two miles long. Here was formerly a priory dependent on S. Gildas, and it possesses a Romanesque church, unhappily repaired and remodelled at various epochs. Near the little Cap de Brohel and in the islet of Boëdic are megalithic monuments. At Penraz, south-east of the village, is half of a cromlech or circle of stones 60 ft. in diameter. At Cap Brohel, ruined dolmens and fallen menhirs; at Pen-lious three fallen dolmens and some menhirs. P. 8th September.Ile aux Moinesis separated from the Iled'Arz by a channel 60 ft. deep at low tide. The ancient name of the island was Crialeis, in Breton it is Ines Menah or Izenah. The prehistoric monuments in it are: the great circle of stones at Kergonan, of which only half remains; the fine dolmen of Penhap, some menhirs, and the ruined dolmens of Broel, Vigie, Kerno, Roh-vras, Roh-vihan, Niol and Pon-niol. The island was granted by Erespoe to the monks of Redon, but after the devastation by the Northmen it was lost to the monks of Redon. The church is modern and is dedicated to S. Michael. P. 29th September. The island was colonised after the Northmen had swept it of its inhabitants, by settlers from Rhuys. The costume of the women is almost the same, but of a more antique cut and character. All the islands in this inland sea, like the mainland have sunk at least 16 ft. since prehistoric times. In the little islet of Er Lannig are two cromlechs, or circles of standing stones; one is half submerged, and the other completely under water, even at low tides.Gavrinislies to the east of the Ile aux Moines. Although less important than those already described, it is the most interesting of all in the Morbihan, on account of its tumulus, 25 ft. high, that covers a fine covered gallery, the stones of which are elaborately carved with mysterious signs like the tattoo-marks of New Zealanders. A gallery 40 ft. long leads to the central chamber, which is 5 ft. high and 6 ft. 6 in. wide. The blocks are of a fine grainedgranite, not of the island, but brought from a distance, with the exception of two, that are of quartz, and these are unsculptured. Such as are carved, were clearly so dealt with before they were erected in place, as the working passes round the edges.Er-lanicis situated half a kilometre to the south-east of Gavrinis, and here are the two cromlechs already mentioned, one dipping into the sea, the other already in deep water. They are juxtaposed, forming an 8, and lie on the S. E. of the island. The first circle consists of 180 stones, but several are fallen, and it can only be seen complete when the tide is out. One stone is 16 ft. high. The second circle can only be seen at low tides.Ile longuecontains a cairn that also covers a gallery. It has not been fully examined.Saint Avée.The church is poor and uninteresting, but in the churchyard is a curious cross, with platform from which, according to local tradition, capital sentences were pronounced. On one side is the crucifix, on the other the B.V.M. On the sides S. John the Baptist and S. Peter. In the church are two windows middle pointed. There is a lech in the churchyard at the east end of the church. But what is of far higher value than the parish church is the remarkable chapel in the Bourg-bas, which is flamboyant (1475-94), except the N. transept that is 2nd pointed. Between the nave and the choir and transepts is a tall crucifix enriched with niches, with railing and gates at the side, atotally unusual description of roodscreen. The crucifix is certainly of 1500. The transepts contain four altars with their original retables. The first on the N. side has very rude carving representing the Crucifixion, Christ in Glory, and the B. Virgin crowned (?) with a dove by her. The second and third are plain with graceful border of foliage. The fourth is a splendid bit of alabaster work, probably Flemish, and represents a virgin saint, the Crucifixion, a saint, Christ giving benediction, S. Avée (?), a Queen-saint, S. Mary Magdalen and a Mermaid. There are some early statues in the chapel, an admirable S. Lucy of the 15th cent., the drapery splendidly executed. Such early statues are very rare. Another is of S. Columbanus. Some fragments of old glass are in the windows. In the churchyard is a very curious carved Calvary of unique character, also a Holy Well. The E. window of the chancel is flamboyant of a later character than the rest. In the N. transept is one flamboyant, the tracery forming a fleur-de-lys. The others are middle pointed. The chapel has a slate spirelet. S. of the chapel by the roadside is a lech with a crucifix planted on top of it. The camp of La Villeneuve is of undetermined date. To reach it the road to Josselin must be taken and diverged from to the left to Mangolorian. Near this hamlet is the camp on a steep hill, almost impracticable on all sides but the west, where it is defended by two ranges of ditches and by two walls. The camp is called either Villeneuve or Kastel-Kerneué.TheVallon de Poignanis within an easy stroll from Vannes. The road to Pontivy is followed as far as the Chapel of S. Guen, and then a lane to the right leads to some curious rocks, one of which is fancifully called a Druid altar. The road to Josselin is then entered, and a lane to the right conducts to the picturesque, rocky valley of Poignan, at the end of an avenue of oaks.Plescop.Of little interest; it has a couple of lechs in the churchyard, and a flamboyant chapel, without much character, to S. Amon, possibly the father of S. Samson, who came from the neighbourhood of Vannes, but usually supposed to have been a returned crusader who asked at Plescop for milk, and as he was refused, cursed the place that its cows should never yield good milk and butter. As he was found dead in a furze-brake next morning he has received cult as a saint. Part of his skull is in a carved oak bust in the chapel, but is not exposed to veneration, as authenticating documents are non-extant. P. 4th Sunday in October.Surzur.Three menhirs 15 ft. high are near the hamlet of Begard, and two ruined allées couvertes are in the coppice of Talhoet. A dolmen and two fallen menhirs near it at the hamlet of Vinihy. The parish church of S. Symphorian is a Romanesque building but altered later. The arcades, the doors and windows are semi-circular. There is a central tower at the crossing of the transepts surmounted by a slate spire. The Chapel of N.D. de Recouvrance is of the 16th cent.S. Nolff.The church is partly of the 16th cent. It has been restored not wisely but too well. The Chapel of S. Anne, 1493, has a fine east window with stained glass representing Our Lord and seven saints. The other windows are filled with glaring modern glass.Sulniac.The parish church dates from several periods. Four pillars and arches are Romanesque, as well as a window near the porch; the other windows and arcades are later. The nave was rebuilt in fancy Romanesque in 1893.* VITRÉ (I.V.) chl. d'arr. A very picturesque town, rivalling Fougères in objects of interest. It stands on a hill above the Vilaine, and notwithstanding the destruction of a portion of its ramparts, is one of the French towns that has best retained the features of the Middle Ages. But on the side of the railway station all is modern and uninteresting. To see the old Vitré it is necessary to enter and pursue the ancient and narrow streets, which form an inextricable tangle. The houses are mostly slated in front. On the N. side the town assumes a feudal character. Here the walls stand on the black schist rock, and are only pierced by a single postern that gives access to a steep descent by steps into the valley. The castle, on a triangular plan, was founded at the close of the 11th cent. and was reconstructed in the 14th and 15th. The entrance is flanked by two towers. The castle is used partly as a prison and partly as a museum. The Church of NotreDame is of the 15th and 16th cents., and has a tower crowned with a spire of the 18th cent. Outside the church is a stone pulpit. There is some old glass of the renaissance period: the entry into Jerusalem, the Adoration of the Shepherds, a representation of the burning of the tower of the church in 1704. The church also contains a remarkable triptych of the 16th cent., representing in 32 little groups on enamelled copper scenes from the New Testament. On the back is an inscription in rhyme. The church of S. Martin is modern; the old church is in the cemetery and dates in part from the 16th century.Château des Rocheswas formerly the residence of Mme. de Sévigné, who lived in it repeatedly between 1654 and 1690. It consists of two blocks of buildings of the 16th cent., and is situated in a pretty park. Visitors are only admitted to the grounds, to the chapel, and to the room of Mme. de Sévigné, which contains copies of family portraits in the private apartments and some objects believed to have belonged to the marquise; among others a book of accounts for the garden signed by her. The bed and chairs are of wood painted white and covered with yellow silk damask.Champeaux.The church is of the 14th and 19th cents., and has fine glass of the renaissance (1530-5) and tombs of the same period. About a mile and a half S.W. a menhir 12 ft. high called La Haute Pierre.Pont l'Abbé(F.) chl. arr. Quimper. Hereone is in the midst of the Bigauden country. Observe the curious and ugly way of wearing the hair and the coiffes. There are many folds of skirts fastened round the waists. The women are remarkably plain, and have staring eyes and expose their teeth. The church has fine 2nd pointed east and west windows. The tower was pulled partly down by Louis XIV. to punish the people for the Revolt of the Papier timbré. Some old houses. Fine cloister. The château of the 13th cent. has been transformed into a mairie. It retains a large tower, and buildings of the 17th cent. Outside the town to the S.W. is the château ofKernuz, transformed by the proprietor into a museum of flints, bronze and jade weapons, and gold ornaments found in the cairns and dolmens of the neighbourhood. The whole peninsula, ending in the Pointe de Penmarch (the Horse's Head), abounds in prehistoric monuments. Two dolmens are near the road, in the parish of Plomeur, which has an ugly modern church.Penmarchwas once a thriving seaport, rivalling Nantes, but for various causes declined, and is now reduced to a couple of hamlets. The church (S. Non = Ninidh, an Irish Bishop) is an interesting late flamboyant structure, the tracery in the windows affecting the forms of fleurs-de-lys. Beneath the E. window is a treasury surmounted by a gallery. At the junction of the chancel with the nave is a spirelet supported by turrets, connected with it by flying buttresses. At the S.W. a pretty little triumphalarch and gable. The church was begun in 1308. Inside the church a fireplace for heating the baptismal water. A mile and a half off is S. Guénolé, the tower of the church alone remaining, 1488. A little apse has been built out at the east end. It contains some curious statues. Here is a bathing establishment, with comfortable quarters.Kerityhas some old maisons fortes, and a ruined church.Tronoen.A chapel of the same date as that at Penmarch, with a fine Calvary. Two stages of sculptured groups.Lambour.A flamboyant church, with colonade of the 13th cent.Loctudy.A Romanesque church, with an Italian 18th cent. façade. It much resembles S. Gildas de Rhuys. It has been restored.Ile Tudymay be visited, but does not contain much of interest.
LE KREISKER, S. POL DE LÉON
LE KREISKER, S. POL DE LÉON
* S. POL DE LÉON (F.) chl. arr. Morlaix. An ancient cathedral town, but the diocese has been united to that of Quimper. The cathedral has two western towers and spires and façade of 1st pointed. The nave is entirely 2nd pointed and has a very beautiful arcade. The cleristory is quite simple, mostly with 1st pointed windows. The side aisles have an arcade under the windows. The transepts are double,i.e.with aisles to the east, fine 2nd pointed. The E. aisle of the S. transept contains very bad flamboyant windows. The choir, ending in an apse, is flamboyant 1431-50, and contains fine carved oak stalls of 1512. The choir has double aisles, N. and S. On the N. side is the Chapel of S. Paul, with his skull, hand, and bell in shrines. The pillars and vaulting of the S. aisle may be noticed.
The Chapel of Kreisker possesses a tower and spire that are supposed by Bretons to be the glory of Finistère. It is badly proportioned; the spire and spirelets overload the summit of the tower. It may be regarded as curious and a clever bit of architecture, but it is not pleasing.This tower is central. The windows are all flamboyant but affect an earlier type. The chapel has triforium and circular cleristory windows on the S. side but none on the N. There is a noble N. porch very richly carved. A very rich W. window. The E. window contains bad modern glass reproducing old figures of Breton saints. The S. side has an arcade under the windows with small lights pierced at intervals. There is a good piscina in the S. aisle. The Church of S. Pierre is now turned into a cemetery chapel. It is 15th cent. but has a baroque west front. Ossuaries (small) are in the wall surrounding the cemetery. On the way to Roscoff, just beyond the railway, is an allée couverte or dolmen.
Roscoffis 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-buriedin 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;seeS. 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 ofSuciniowas 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 ofVannes, 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 thehigh 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 bénitiers; another is thrown outside. A beautiful statue of Gildas by Vallet stands over the tomb. It is that of a sweet and placable saint, not of a rancorous and revengeful man. In the S. transept, which was destroyed by a storm and has been rebuilt, is a huge barbaric retable. The treasury contains a silver bust containing part of the skull, and reliquaries for arm and thigh bones of the Saint; some of these reliquaries are of the 15th cent. There is also a mitre of the 15th cent. which is erroneously supposed to have been that of Abelard. The conventual buildings are of the 18th cent. and are occupied by a religious order which receives female paying guests during the season. Abelard, born in 1079, became a Benedictine monk in 1117, and was elected abbot of S. Gildas de Rhuys in 1125. But the strictness of his rule roused the monks against him. "The life of the monks," he wrote, "was indisciplined and frightful. The abbey gates were decorated with the feet of stags, bears and boars. The monkswere roused from their slumbers by no other signal than the hunter's horn and the baying of hounds. The natives were barbarous and disorderly." The community revolted against any attempt to bring it to discipline, and Abelard believed that his life was in danger; he accordingly fled in 1138 and died at Cluny in 1142.
By following the road behind the church, along the convent walls, the Chapel of S. Bieuzy is reached, and a path to the right leads to the little Baie de Portas, where in the rock is an impression like that of a horse's hoof. Legend says that Gildas left the Isle of Houat on a flying horse that landed at this spot. A stair cut in the rock leads to the Baie de Saint Gildas, where is a spring and over it a statue of the Saint.
Arzonhas 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 architecturalcharacter. 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 theBulletin de la Soc. d'emulation des Côtes-du-Nord, T. xxxv. (1897).
TRÉGUIER CATHEDRAL
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.
AtTréversienis the Château de la Fosse aux Loups, where the scene is laid of Paul Féval's novel "Rollan Pied de Fer."
Les Iffsand the Château of Montmuran may be visited from Tinténiac (seeBecherel).
* 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, alluncusped. 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. Theclerestory 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 thoughTugdual 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 ofKermartin now serves as parish church toMinihi 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 inRichard II.act ii. sc. i. On the road fromPenvenan, 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 theirperiod. 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 in the parish is the chapel of S. Gonery. The tower is early 1st pointed, and was never completed. Above it is now a leaning wood and lead spirelet. The chapel consists of a single nave, with chancel and two chapels, one on each side of the chancel. The glory of the chapel is its magnificent painted ceiling in ten lower ranges, representing on one side the incidents of the Nativity, on the other those of the Passion. Above these ten more compartments give the life of Our Lord in glory. These subjects are curious; the most remarkable perhaps is the reception of Adam and Eve into Heaven by Christ. In the body of the church is a noble carved oak buffet, to serve as cupboard to the relics of S. Gonery. It has on it the Twelve Apostles and the Annunciation. The church, with the exception of the tower, is 15th cent., and the paintings are of the same period. Unhappily through neglect of attention to the roof, those near the tower are seriously injured by the wet. On the N. side of the chancel is the fine renaissance monument of Bishop Guillaume de Halgoët, 1599; on it is a recumbent figure of the prelate. Some fragmentsof stained glass are in the windows representing the Annunciation and Christ on the Cross. The S. porch is bold and curious, a pent-house roof sustained on huge granite corbels. Under the tower are the tomb and the "boat" of S. Gonery. The tomb is reached by descending under a structure of the 17th cent. Those afflicted with fever obtain earth from it which they tie up in little packets, and return when well. Consequently several of those little parcels of earth may be seen on the tomb. On the opposite side is the boat, in which S. Gonery and his mother Libouban came over from Britain. It is a curiously shaped stone trough, and probably actually was the sarcophagus of the Saint. It nearly resembles the stone coffins of the Merovingian period and of the 11th cent. Statues of S. Gonery and of S. Libouban are one on each side of the altar, the latter erroneously marked as N.D. de Bon Secours; the statue of the Virgin is of alabaster, and of the 15th cent., and stands on an altar in the S. chapel. The seacoast at Plougrescent is bold and fine with noble cliffs. The day of S. Gonery is July 18, but the P. is on the 4th S. in July.
Trinité-Porhoet(M.) chl. arr. Ploermel. This place takes its name from the county of Porhoet, which was formed after the expulsion of the Northmen in the 10th cent. Josselin afterwards became the seat of the Count. There was a priory here founded by the monks of S. Jacut, in or about 1050. The old parish church was pulled down in 1806 and 1807 toserve for the construction of the halles. La Trinité, which was the priory church, is now that of the parish. It retains some Romanesque pillars and arches. The choir was partly rebuilt in 1742 and 1787, when also the tower and transepts were erected. This church is an object of pilgrimage. The P. is on Trinity Sunday.
Taulé(F.) chl. arr. Morlaix. On the line to S. Pol-de-Léon. Near this is Loquenolé (S. Winwaloe), with a most interesting church containing some of the earliest work in Brittany, very early 11th cent., and possibly of 10th. Observe the curious rude sculpture.
Henvichas in its church paintings representing the story of S. Maudetus (Mawes) and his sister S. Juvetta.
Uzel(C.N.) chl. arr. Loudéac, is not a place of much interest. The church is of the 17th cent., altered in the 18th. The Chapel of Bonne Nouvelle is of the 16th cent. Some ruins of the old château of Uzel remain, and there is a house of 1620.
Merléachas a Chapel of S. Jacques of the 14th cent. at the village of Saint Léon. The central east window is perhaps the finest in the Department; the tracery is all in granite, and it contains stained glass representing eight scenes in the Life of the Virgin, and eight scenes from that of S. Jacques. There are other windows representing the Conception and the Assumption. The ceiling is painted (15th cent.) with subjects from the Life of our Lord and the legend of S.James, and a procession of angels forming a concert on seventeen instruments of music. For a study of the shapes of musical instruments of the 15th cent. this chapel should be visited.
Quillio.The church contains the woodwork transported thither from the abbey of Bon-repos. Above the altar is a suspended Pyx.
Grâce.An allée couverte at the hamlet of Bois, running N. and S. and 18 ft. long. It is composed of blocks of quartz. There are eight supporters on each side and five coverers, but only one of these latter is in place.
VANNES
VANNES
* VANNES (M.) chl. d'arr. Capital of the Department, and seat of a bishop. The town is not remarkably picturesque. The walls remain in places but built into, and only two gates with flanking towers have been spared. The cathedral is very disappointing, and there are few picturesque old houses. Vannes was the capital of the warlike Veneti, whom Cæsar crushed inB.C.57, when he butchered all the chiefs and leading nobles, and sold their families into slavery. It became a Roman town, called Duriorigum, and six Roman roads struck over the country from it to Locmariaquer, Hennebont, Corseul, Rennes, Rieux, and Arzal. A Roman necropolis has been found on the site of the artillery barracks. At the beginning of the 5th cent. many towns dropped their particular names and assumed those of the peoples to which they formed centres, and then the place took the name which it has since borne in Breton, Gweneth. Christianity having made some progress among the Veneti, in465 Perpetuus, metropolitan of Tours, assembled a council at Vannes, and consecrated to it a bishop, Paternus. The city remained Gallo-Roman; but throughout the 5th and 6th cents. British emigrants arrived in such numbers, that in 590, Regalis, the bishop, complained that he was, as it were, imprisoned within the walls of the town by them. These colonists had their own laws, princes, and ecclesiastical system, and would not recognise the bishop. In 496 we hear of an Eusebius, king or governor of the town. An alliance was entered into between the Armoricans and the Franks, and Clovis and his successors were recognised as overlords. Whether the British chieftain Weroch got into the city and established himself there is doubtful, but his son Macliau did so, on his death. Macliau was in orders, and married. On the death of the bishop he induced the clergy and people to elect him as their bishop, and to satisfy their prejudices dismissed his wife. No sooner, however, was he firmly seated on the episcopal throne, than he sent for his wife and children. About eight years later his brother Canao, secular chief of the Bretons, revolted against the Franks, whereupon Macliau proclaimed himself Count as well as Bishop. He was killed along with two of his sons in 577. Pepin occupied the city in 753, and Louis the Pious visited it at the head of an army in 818. In 843 Nominoe, governor of Brittany, shook off the yoke of Frank allegiance. Then came the invasion of the Northmen, and the disappearanceof the Counts of Vannes, till 937, when Alan II., Barbetorte, friend of Athelstan, was recognised as Count, and transmitted the title to his descendants. The town walls were rebuilt in 1270. In less than a century the War of Succession broke out and Vannes had to stand four sieges in one year, 1342. John IV., conqueror at Auray in 1364, repaired the walls, and extended them. The cathedral church of S. Peter was burnt by the Northmen in the 10th cent. and was rebuilt in the 11th at the same time as the abbey church of S. Gildas de Rhuys. But the tower was added in the 13th cent. and the whole of the nave and transepts, the former in 1452-76 and the latter in 1504-27, consequently in the flamboyant style. The nave has no side aisles, but chapels between the buttresses. In 1537 Archdeacon Jean Danialo who had been in Rome, returned enthusiastic in favour of pagan architecture, and to show the canons what he admired, constructed the circular Chapel of the B. Sacrament on the north side, a beautiful structure for its style. But at the same time the chapter was building its cloisters, and they are full flamboyant tending to renaissance. The apsidal Chapel of N.D. and S. Vincent was erected at the same time also, and is thoroughly Italian. In the meantime the old Romanesque choir showed signs of falling, and was pulled down in 1770 and the present choir was built and finished in 1776. Then the chapter set to work to transform the nave. All the tracery was hacked out of the windows, and a plainbarrel vault was added. The W. tower has had a spire added to it recently, and the W. front was "restored" in feeble style in 1868-73. Then the architect was entrusted with filling the windows with tracery; and he, not comprehending the character of the nave, inserted tracery of a century earlier in style. The N. transept had a fine doorway, but it has been blocked up for a hideous baroque retable and altar to stand against it. Thus the church, never very fine, has lost much of its character and interest. In the N. transept is the tomb of S. Vincent Ferrier, and above it his bust in silver. Vincent was born at Valence in 1357, and in 1374 entered his novitiate among the Dominicans. He was sent to Barcelona and Lerida to give lessons in philosophy, but threw up the study and devoted himself to preaching, and rambled through France, Spain, Italy, England, Scotland and Ireland, as a revivalist preacher, but, of course, in such countries as did not understand his tongue, the effect of his sermons was lost. He spent two years in Brittany, where he cannot have been of any use, as the peasants could not comprehend French. He died at Vannes on the 5th April 1419, but the Pardon is on the 1st Sunday in September. The other churches of Vannes are not worth looking at. That of S. Paternus was built in 1727. The Museum of Archæology of the Societé Polymathique du Morbihan contains many interesting objects from the dolmens and tumuli of the Morbihan.
Vannes is situated at the distance of 5 kilometresfrom the Morbihan, the inland sea that gives its name to the Department. Almost every day two little steamers leave the port for the islets, but the time of starting depends on the tide. The Gulf of the Morbihan is some 8 miles long and about 15 miles wide. It communicates with the sea by a narrow mouth only three-quarters of a mile across. It is nowhere deep; from 45 to 60 ft. is its depth. It is studded with low islands, of which at the outside forty are inhabited and some fifty are cultivated. The inhabitants live by fishing, and all the men are sailors.
This inland sheet of water is cut off from the ocean by two great crab's claws, the peninsula of Sarzeau and that of Locmariaquer. The scenery is by no means bold; sandy shores and low islets, and mud banks at the fall of the tide. The archipelago is, however, very interesting because of the numerous prehistoric remains on the islands.
TheIsle of Arzis about two miles long. Here was formerly a priory dependent on S. Gildas, and it possesses a Romanesque church, unhappily repaired and remodelled at various epochs. Near the little Cap de Brohel and in the islet of Boëdic are megalithic monuments. At Penraz, south-east of the village, is half of a cromlech or circle of stones 60 ft. in diameter. At Cap Brohel, ruined dolmens and fallen menhirs; at Pen-lious three fallen dolmens and some menhirs. P. 8th September.
Ile aux Moinesis separated from the Iled'Arz by a channel 60 ft. deep at low tide. The ancient name of the island was Crialeis, in Breton it is Ines Menah or Izenah. The prehistoric monuments in it are: the great circle of stones at Kergonan, of which only half remains; the fine dolmen of Penhap, some menhirs, and the ruined dolmens of Broel, Vigie, Kerno, Roh-vras, Roh-vihan, Niol and Pon-niol. The island was granted by Erespoe to the monks of Redon, but after the devastation by the Northmen it was lost to the monks of Redon. The church is modern and is dedicated to S. Michael. P. 29th September. The island was colonised after the Northmen had swept it of its inhabitants, by settlers from Rhuys. The costume of the women is almost the same, but of a more antique cut and character. All the islands in this inland sea, like the mainland have sunk at least 16 ft. since prehistoric times. In the little islet of Er Lannig are two cromlechs, or circles of standing stones; one is half submerged, and the other completely under water, even at low tides.
Gavrinislies to the east of the Ile aux Moines. Although less important than those already described, it is the most interesting of all in the Morbihan, on account of its tumulus, 25 ft. high, that covers a fine covered gallery, the stones of which are elaborately carved with mysterious signs like the tattoo-marks of New Zealanders. A gallery 40 ft. long leads to the central chamber, which is 5 ft. high and 6 ft. 6 in. wide. The blocks are of a fine grainedgranite, not of the island, but brought from a distance, with the exception of two, that are of quartz, and these are unsculptured. Such as are carved, were clearly so dealt with before they were erected in place, as the working passes round the edges.
Er-lanicis situated half a kilometre to the south-east of Gavrinis, and here are the two cromlechs already mentioned, one dipping into the sea, the other already in deep water. They are juxtaposed, forming an 8, and lie on the S. E. of the island. The first circle consists of 180 stones, but several are fallen, and it can only be seen complete when the tide is out. One stone is 16 ft. high. The second circle can only be seen at low tides.
Ile longuecontains a cairn that also covers a gallery. It has not been fully examined.
Saint Avée.The church is poor and uninteresting, but in the churchyard is a curious cross, with platform from which, according to local tradition, capital sentences were pronounced. On one side is the crucifix, on the other the B.V.M. On the sides S. John the Baptist and S. Peter. In the church are two windows middle pointed. There is a lech in the churchyard at the east end of the church. But what is of far higher value than the parish church is the remarkable chapel in the Bourg-bas, which is flamboyant (1475-94), except the N. transept that is 2nd pointed. Between the nave and the choir and transepts is a tall crucifix enriched with niches, with railing and gates at the side, atotally unusual description of roodscreen. The crucifix is certainly of 1500. The transepts contain four altars with their original retables. The first on the N. side has very rude carving representing the Crucifixion, Christ in Glory, and the B. Virgin crowned (?) with a dove by her. The second and third are plain with graceful border of foliage. The fourth is a splendid bit of alabaster work, probably Flemish, and represents a virgin saint, the Crucifixion, a saint, Christ giving benediction, S. Avée (?), a Queen-saint, S. Mary Magdalen and a Mermaid. There are some early statues in the chapel, an admirable S. Lucy of the 15th cent., the drapery splendidly executed. Such early statues are very rare. Another is of S. Columbanus. Some fragments of old glass are in the windows. In the churchyard is a very curious carved Calvary of unique character, also a Holy Well. The E. window of the chancel is flamboyant of a later character than the rest. In the N. transept is one flamboyant, the tracery forming a fleur-de-lys. The others are middle pointed. The chapel has a slate spirelet. S. of the chapel by the roadside is a lech with a crucifix planted on top of it. The camp of La Villeneuve is of undetermined date. To reach it the road to Josselin must be taken and diverged from to the left to Mangolorian. Near this hamlet is the camp on a steep hill, almost impracticable on all sides but the west, where it is defended by two ranges of ditches and by two walls. The camp is called either Villeneuve or Kastel-Kerneué.
TheVallon de Poignanis within an easy stroll from Vannes. The road to Pontivy is followed as far as the Chapel of S. Guen, and then a lane to the right leads to some curious rocks, one of which is fancifully called a Druid altar. The road to Josselin is then entered, and a lane to the right conducts to the picturesque, rocky valley of Poignan, at the end of an avenue of oaks.
Plescop.Of little interest; it has a couple of lechs in the churchyard, and a flamboyant chapel, without much character, to S. Amon, possibly the father of S. Samson, who came from the neighbourhood of Vannes, but usually supposed to have been a returned crusader who asked at Plescop for milk, and as he was refused, cursed the place that its cows should never yield good milk and butter. As he was found dead in a furze-brake next morning he has received cult as a saint. Part of his skull is in a carved oak bust in the chapel, but is not exposed to veneration, as authenticating documents are non-extant. P. 4th Sunday in October.
Surzur.Three menhirs 15 ft. high are near the hamlet of Begard, and two ruined allées couvertes are in the coppice of Talhoet. A dolmen and two fallen menhirs near it at the hamlet of Vinihy. The parish church of S. Symphorian is a Romanesque building but altered later. The arcades, the doors and windows are semi-circular. There is a central tower at the crossing of the transepts surmounted by a slate spire. The Chapel of N.D. de Recouvrance is of the 16th cent.
S. Nolff.The church is partly of the 16th cent. It has been restored not wisely but too well. The Chapel of S. Anne, 1493, has a fine east window with stained glass representing Our Lord and seven saints. The other windows are filled with glaring modern glass.
Sulniac.The parish church dates from several periods. Four pillars and arches are Romanesque, as well as a window near the porch; the other windows and arcades are later. The nave was rebuilt in fancy Romanesque in 1893.
* VITRÉ (I.V.) chl. d'arr. A very picturesque town, rivalling Fougères in objects of interest. It stands on a hill above the Vilaine, and notwithstanding the destruction of a portion of its ramparts, is one of the French towns that has best retained the features of the Middle Ages. But on the side of the railway station all is modern and uninteresting. To see the old Vitré it is necessary to enter and pursue the ancient and narrow streets, which form an inextricable tangle. The houses are mostly slated in front. On the N. side the town assumes a feudal character. Here the walls stand on the black schist rock, and are only pierced by a single postern that gives access to a steep descent by steps into the valley. The castle, on a triangular plan, was founded at the close of the 11th cent. and was reconstructed in the 14th and 15th. The entrance is flanked by two towers. The castle is used partly as a prison and partly as a museum. The Church of NotreDame is of the 15th and 16th cents., and has a tower crowned with a spire of the 18th cent. Outside the church is a stone pulpit. There is some old glass of the renaissance period: the entry into Jerusalem, the Adoration of the Shepherds, a representation of the burning of the tower of the church in 1704. The church also contains a remarkable triptych of the 16th cent., representing in 32 little groups on enamelled copper scenes from the New Testament. On the back is an inscription in rhyme. The church of S. Martin is modern; the old church is in the cemetery and dates in part from the 16th century.
Château des Rocheswas formerly the residence of Mme. de Sévigné, who lived in it repeatedly between 1654 and 1690. It consists of two blocks of buildings of the 16th cent., and is situated in a pretty park. Visitors are only admitted to the grounds, to the chapel, and to the room of Mme. de Sévigné, which contains copies of family portraits in the private apartments and some objects believed to have belonged to the marquise; among others a book of accounts for the garden signed by her. The bed and chairs are of wood painted white and covered with yellow silk damask.
Champeaux.The church is of the 14th and 19th cents., and has fine glass of the renaissance (1530-5) and tombs of the same period. About a mile and a half S.W. a menhir 12 ft. high called La Haute Pierre.
Pont l'Abbé(F.) chl. arr. Quimper. Hereone is in the midst of the Bigauden country. Observe the curious and ugly way of wearing the hair and the coiffes. There are many folds of skirts fastened round the waists. The women are remarkably plain, and have staring eyes and expose their teeth. The church has fine 2nd pointed east and west windows. The tower was pulled partly down by Louis XIV. to punish the people for the Revolt of the Papier timbré. Some old houses. Fine cloister. The château of the 13th cent. has been transformed into a mairie. It retains a large tower, and buildings of the 17th cent. Outside the town to the S.W. is the château ofKernuz, transformed by the proprietor into a museum of flints, bronze and jade weapons, and gold ornaments found in the cairns and dolmens of the neighbourhood. The whole peninsula, ending in the Pointe de Penmarch (the Horse's Head), abounds in prehistoric monuments. Two dolmens are near the road, in the parish of Plomeur, which has an ugly modern church.
Penmarchwas once a thriving seaport, rivalling Nantes, but for various causes declined, and is now reduced to a couple of hamlets. The church (S. Non = Ninidh, an Irish Bishop) is an interesting late flamboyant structure, the tracery in the windows affecting the forms of fleurs-de-lys. Beneath the E. window is a treasury surmounted by a gallery. At the junction of the chancel with the nave is a spirelet supported by turrets, connected with it by flying buttresses. At the S.W. a pretty little triumphalarch and gable. The church was begun in 1308. Inside the church a fireplace for heating the baptismal water. A mile and a half off is S. Guénolé, the tower of the church alone remaining, 1488. A little apse has been built out at the east end. It contains some curious statues. Here is a bathing establishment, with comfortable quarters.Kerityhas some old maisons fortes, and a ruined church.
Tronoen.A chapel of the same date as that at Penmarch, with a fine Calvary. Two stages of sculptured groups.
Lambour.A flamboyant church, with colonade of the 13th cent.
Loctudy.A Romanesque church, with an Italian 18th cent. façade. It much resembles S. Gildas de Rhuys. It has been restored.Ile Tudymay be visited, but does not contain much of interest.