Brittany

by S. Baring-Gould

Guegon. The church is in the late Romanesque of the 12th cent., when the style was in transition to 1st pointed. The south aisle is of 1560 and late flamboyant. In a window is stained glass representing the apostles; it is of 1563. The tower and spire were the loftiest in the diocese, but were struck by lightning in 1705.

S. Servan. To this parish Gobrian, Bishop of Vannes, retired in 717 and here died in 725. He was buried in his oratory. A village grew up about his tomb that bore his name. This is now a chapelry, and the chapel is of the 11th cent. with additions of the 15th cent. The nave is floored, forming an upper chamber which served as a hospital for the sick seeking health at the tomb of the Saint.

Jugon (C.N.) chl. arr. Dinan. A prettily situated town at the junction of two valleys, each occupied formerly by a lake and dominated by a strong castle at the fork. One of the lakes has been drained and the castle has been destroyed. The church has nave and S. tower, 2nd pointed and good. There is a curious W. doorway. Choir and transepts are flamboyant. The church has been "restored" in execrable taste. The road from Jugon to Dinan runs over high and dreary country, moors only partially reclaimed.

Lamballe (C.N.) chl. arr. S. Brieuc. A little town in a plain dominated by a ridge of granite that runs to the east and is crowned at its W. termination by the beautiful Chapel of Notre Dame, and by a windmill at the E. termination. In Lamballe are some picturesque old houses, and there is a haras for the improvement of the breed of horses in Brittany. The town possesses three churches, one of which is Notre Dame, and was a chapel of the counts of Penthièvre, and is by far the finest in the town, but it is now only occasionally that divine service is performed in it.

The parish church of S. Jean is of the late middle pointed style, 1425, with an octagonal tower of 1420 at the base, but much later at the crown. The church has been atrociously mutilated, all the tracery cut out of the windows in the 18th cent. to be replaced by an iron framework to sustain the glass. The Church of S. Martin was of early Romanesque of the beginning of the 11th cent., but the arches to the east show the beginning of the pointed style. The S. transept possesses a good middle pointed geometric window. The tower was begun in 1551 and became purely renaissance before completion. The quaint wooden porch was added in 1519.

The Church of Notre Dame is a magnificent structure, and richly repays a close study. The most ancient portions are the N. transept, with lancet windows, the noble gateway and the W. front, together with the arcade of the nave. But the side aisles are late flamboyant. The choir and S. transept were erected by Charles de Blois and are admirable examples of 2nd or middle pointed architecture at its very best. The choir is vaulted but not the nave. To sustain the vault on the S. side are buttresses within the church forming side chapels and pierced with delicate tracery. There is a double triforium. The choir has a square end lighted by a noble E. window, very tall and of only four lights. The clustered pillars on the S. side of the choir and the piers sustaining the central tower are remarkably fine. There is a little flamboyant screen with a renaissance organ-case above it in the S. aisle of the choir.

S. Aaron. On the Lande du Chêne-hut is an allée couverte composed of 13 stones, three of which are coverers, and two others lie in the soil. The whole is 30 feet long.

Meslin. Five allées couvertes on the Lande du Gras. One is in the middle of the Lande, one just below the mill, a third in the Champ des Caves, a fourth at Bourdonnais. In the Lande du Gras is a menhir 10 feet high.

* Landerneau (F.) chl. arr. Brest. An excellent centre for many interesting excursions. The town is commercial and thriving. It possesses a few old houses and a quaint mill. The Church of S. Houardon has been rebuilt, but the beautiful tower and superb porch have been preserved. The date of the porch is 1604, and the tower is of much the same date. Landerneau was a great artistic centre in the 16th and 17th cents., and its architects and sculptors erected the splendid work in the Elorn valley and the region around. The style they created is very original and deserves attention. They delighted in adorning the churches with noble porches, bold, and often with the gable crowned with a spirelet. Within, niches hold statues of the twelve apostles. When all other detail is Italian, the foliage remains of flamboyant character. The second church in Landerneau is that of S. Thomas à Becket, 1607, small and uninteresting. To the W. is an ossuary of 1632 converted into a habitation. The valley of the Elorn presents many scenes of considerable beauty. The rocks are of white quartz breaking through the leafy covert of the hills.

Pencran. A steep ascent of a mile leads to this very interesting church, with fine porch and two calvaries and a spire. The date of the porch is 1553. The sculpture here in Kersanton stone is peculiarly rich and delicate. Among the groups of figures may be distinguished Adam and Eve, and the serpent, the expulsion from Paradise, Cain and Abel, Adam delving whilst Eve spins, the Ark and the drunkenness of Noah. In the tymphanum is the Nativity, much mutilated. Within the church are the Descent from the Cross and the Mater dolorosa, groups carved in 1517.