Brittany

by S. Baring-Gould

Planguenoual. The church is partly Romanesque, partly 13th cent. The bénitier shows signs of having been systematically employed as a knife-sharpener.

* PLESTIN LES GRÈVES (C.N.) chl. arr. Lannion. Fine sands. The tide recedes here to a great distance. Plestin (Plou-Jestin) owes its origin to an Irish emigrant Efflam, who settled here with a colony of his countrymen in the 6th cent. He found that a British settler was there before him, Jestin, probably the son of Geraint, prince of Devon. He came to terms with him without a quarrel, the arrangement being that one should rule the secular and the other the ecclesiastical tribe. Plestin before this would seem to have been a Gallo-Roman town, as numerous remains as well as coins indicate. The church, much altered, contains the tomb of S. Efflam, of the 16th cent. The porch is of 1575, and contains statues of the twelve apostles. The Chapel of S. Jacut of the 16th cent. has some old glass. Near the Chapel of S. Efflam (1620) is his Holy Well.

Plou Miliau was the plebs or tribal land of Miliau, King of Cornouaille, who was murdered by his brother Rivold. The church is in debased Gothic of 1602.

Plouzélambre. The church is of the 15th and 16th cents., with flamboyant windows. The tower of 1753. In the church a fine renaissance carved oak retable, with seven groups of figures on it, representing scenes of the Passion. In the churchyard a pretty ossuary of granite of the 17th cent. An oratory, consisting of a vault sustained by four columns, is called Le Réposoir. Ruins of the Château of Kerbané of the 15th cent.

Trédez. A menhir 13 ft. high, with another near it that has fallen, that measured 24 ft. Near the Château de Coatredrez another, 19 ft. high. At Lan Saliou another of about the same height. In the church is a triptych representing a Jesse tree. The font has a fine baldachino of carved oak, of the 17th cent. The Chapel of Loquémeau is of the 16th cent., except one window in the N. transept, of the 14th. The frieze within is fantastically carved.

Trémel. A menhir at Kerguiniou, 16 ft. high, and near by a dolmen. The church is of the 16th cent., with apse; the porch has within statues of the apostles.

Plufur. Church of 1764; but it retains remains of a retable of the 16th cent. Sculptured scenes in relief of the Passion. In the churchyard is the Chapel of S. Yves, 17th cent., with paintings on the ceiling. The Chapel of S. Nicolas forms a latin cross, and has seven flamboyant windows.

S. Michel-en-Grèves. The Chapel of S. Geneviève has an early rude altar, and remains of a 16th cent. screen.

Pleyben (F.) chl. arr. Châteaulin. The noble church (S. Germain) of 1564 exhibits the transition from Gothic to Italian style. The church is regarded as one of the most beautiful ecclesiastical monuments in Finistère. From whatever point of view seen, the grouping of the towers, though so different in character, is most pleasing. The principal tower is tall and square, with a balustrade to the platform on the summit, and on this platform rises a cupola crowned by a lantern, and there are four lesser lanterns at the corners. The tower exhibits the renaissance style fully developed, yet it was constructed only twenty years after the rest of the church, which is instinct with Gothic feeling. The second tower was raised in 1588-91, and is in the late flamboyant style. It is graceful and quaint. The stair to the bellcage is carried up in a turret detached save for a flying gallery supported on a couple of arches. The fine porch dates from 1588-91, and contains statues of the apostles. It is surrounded by a cordon of niches, shallow but lofty, and forming an exterior enrichment. The statuary is stiff, but not without character. The east end of the church is an apse, with gables over the windows, which are flamboyant. That over the high altar contains old glass representing the story of the Passion, 1564. The wooden waggon roof of the church is supported on a cornice quaintly carved. A curious little box for the holy oils is in the sacristy. The ossuary of Pleyben is the earliest in the Department; separate from the church. It belongs to the 16th cent. The Calvary of 1650 consists of four great spurs sustaining a central platform on vault and arches. The platform is crowded with figures in 28 groups, representing the scenes of the Nativity and the Passion, and, above all, as the 29th, is the Crucifixion. The Chapel of Lannelec, two kilometres distant, is in itself uninteresting, but contains curious statues and sculptures. The P. at Pleyben is on the 1st Sunday in August.

* PLOERMEL (M.) chl. d'arr. The town stands but a little distance from the pretty lake of Le Duc, surrounded with trees. It occupies rising ground and has in its midst a magnificent church (1511-1602) chiefly remarkable for its collection of 16th century glass. This represents—1. Jean l'Epervier, Bishop of S. Malo, kneeling before the B.V.M. and S. Michael; 2. dated 1533 is Pentecost, a superb piece of colouring; 3. the Life of S. Armel; 4. a Jesse tree, the finest of all; 5. the Passion; 6. the Death and Assumption of the B.V.M.; 7. a window of 1602 contains diverse subjects; and 8. the Last Supper. Beside these old windows some modern glass is "a thing to shudder at not to see." Indeed the French do not seem in glass painting to have got beyond the crude stage of English beginnings forty years ago. The church is throughout flamboyant, except the west tower. Under an enormous arch, that includes a flamboyant window, is a double entrance to the N., with rich figure carving over it representing sacred subjects, the Annunciation, the Nativity, and the Flight into Egypt, etc. But the buttress on the W. was carved when the religious Gothic feeling was dead, and it is covered with renaissance sculpture, where only buffoonery and paganism find expression. Syrens, monsters, a cobbler sewing up his wife's mouth, a woman pulling off her husband's hat, a sow playing a bagpipe, two nude figures, one on the back of the other, each blowing a horn, etc., form the decoration. At a little distance from the town on the Vannes road, about a hundred yards on one side in a pretty situation, is the Holy Well of S. Armel, of the 17th cent. Ploermel is the headquarters of the Frères Lammenais, who carry on the religious instruction of the boys in almost every parish in Brittany, and in other parts of France as well, and the colonies, in opposition to the godless governmental schools. From Ploermel the visitor will probably go on to [Josselin], which see.