Calvary, Plougastel
Opposite Brest, just across the estuary of the Elorn, is Plougastel, famous for its melons and its green peas, and, above all, for its picturesque calvary.
The whole peninsula of Plougastel-Daoulas is a vast market-garden for Brest, and, for that matter, for the hotels at Paris. The verdure and vegetable growth is in striking contrast to the barren fringe of rocky coast-line, and therein lies one of the charms of the whole aspect of nature as it is seen here.
Nothing in Brittany is more picturesque than the little villages of Kerérault, Roc’hquérezen, Roc’huivlen, and Roc’hquillion. This is a commonplace perhaps to those who know the region well, but it will not be to strangers, and so it is reiterated here.
The Chapel St. John of Plougastel is perhaps two kilometres away. It is here, on the twenty-fourth of June of each year, that its pardon brings so great a throng of visitors that they really have to bring their eatables with them or starve, thus making a fast-day of a feast.
In the cemetery is that great calvary which has so often been pictured, the most considerable work of its kind in existence.
It was erected 1602-04, in memory of a plague which fell upon the land in 1598.
In recent times it has been restored. On the front is an altar ornamented with statues of St. Sebastien, St. Pierre, and St. Roch. The frieze shows a multitude of bas-reliefs, illustrating the life of Jesus, and the risers of the steps are a series of quaintly carved little people, over two hundred in number. On the plinth is a risen Christ and a tablet bearing the date of erection of the work. It is a marvellous expression of religious devotion, and far surpasses other wayside shrines in Brittany, and indeed in all the world.