Brittany

by S. Baring-Gould

* PONT-CROIX (F.) chl. arr. Quimper. This little town is far more attractive than Audierne, and is better suited to stay at for a visit to the numerous objects of interest in the peninsula. It is built about a remarkable abbey church, one of the finest in Finistère, and with the noblest tower and spire in Brittany. Most of these towers and spires look like hot-house growths, and are over-weighted by their spires. But the tower of Pontcroix is solid and in perfect proportion to its spire. The church also presents admirable examples of 2nd pointed architecture, notably its unique S. porch. The spire is of the same period. The S. transept had a window of the same, circ. 1380, but the tracery has been hacked away and replaced by feeble weedy flamboyant. Of the other flamboyant windows, one is well designed, two are under acute gables. The church has an apse (flamboyant) with six windows. On entering the sacred building, the surprised visitor finds himself in a Romanesque church, but of a late period, 1160. The pillars are spindly and tall, and sustain round arches. It is Romanesque at its last gasp, and without its original vigour and massiveness. A very ugly feature is the inner member of the arch, which is sustained on corbels resting on the capitals. The arcade of the sanctuary is of the 13th cent. The piers supporting the central tower were Romanesque, but were encased at a late period, when the spire was added. Some stained glass is of the 15th cent.

A walk or drive may be taken to N.D. de Confort on the Quimper road; it is 16th cent. with a graceful spirelet above a double gallery and a turret at the side to give access to the bells. The Calvary is of the same period, purer in design and better in detail than the overcrowded Calvaries of Guimiliau and Plougastel. In the chapel is a Wheel of Fortune set with bells, which the pilgrims set in motion so as to summon the Saint to hearken to their prayers. At Meilars is another Calvary, also a dolmen. Half-way between N.D. de Confort and Poullan is the admirable Chapel of Kerinec with its Holy Well and a Calvary consisting of a cross above a preaching platform. The great charm of this chapel lies in its interior, which is very beautiful. Further on is Poullan buried in trees (S. Cadvan), a transition church between flamboyant and renaissance, with a thin oblong tower and a good porch. There is no chancel arch. Nave and aisles have boarded ceilings. The granite capitals are rudely carved. The side aisles very narrow, the pillars tall, sustaining small pointed arches. An octagonal 17th cent. baptistery. There is a menhir near the seamark at Kermenhir, and there are dolmens in the parish. The country is barren, planted with Austrian pine, but is being brought under cultivation by the use of sardine heads as manure. The coast to Cap Sizun is bold and fine. Beuzec Cap Sizun. Church (S. Budoc) with tower of the 16th cent. A fine coast. P. at N.D. de Confort, 1st Sunday in July. P. of Kerinec, 3rd Sunday in July. P. at Poullan, 1st Sunday in Sept. P. at N.D. de Clarté in Beuzec, on the Eve of Rogation Sunday.

N.D. DE CONFORT

* PONTIVY (M.) chl. d'arr. A busy town, very modern and vastly ugly in its modern portion, but with a few picturesque bits in the old town. In the new Pontivy is the hideous Church of S. Joseph, about as bad in architecture as the perversity of ignorance could design. The church in the old town in decadent flamboyant, is bad of its kind. The tracery had been removed from the windows, and has been replaced by new stuff of no character except feebleness. The W. tower is octagonal with a spire surmounting it. The castle has been in part destroyed, but two faces remain with singularly low drums of towers. In it is now the museum. The costume of the neighbourhood of Pontivy in the women is not remarkable, but that of the men is picturesque, white jackets bordered and ornamented with black velvet.

In the cemetery outside Pontivy is a menhir surmounted by a cross. The spire of N.D. de la Houssaye beyond the cemetery is an interesting specimen of the flamboyant architecture of the beginning of the 15th cent. It was built in 1438, but the tower, which is quite in the Breton renaissance character, was actually built as late as 1750. It is curious as showing to how late a date the Gothic feeling hung on in Brittany.

Noyal-Pontivy. The church has a 14th cent. tower and spire. The porch is flamboyant. On one side within are apostles, on the other, curious subjects, The Baptism, an Angel holding a pair of blue breeches whilst Christ is in the water, a naked man carrying his head upside-down, and some other subjects not easily made out. The church has been carefully restored. The early flamboyant E. window has the date cut on the splay. The vaulting of nave and chancel is modern. In the N. transept is fine old glass representing the Annunciation, Nativity, Shepherds and Angels, Adoration of Shepherds, Circumcision, Flight into Egypt, Massacre of the Innocents; also the Bearing of the Cross, the Veronica, Crucifixion and Entombment from another window. In the nave is a curious painted retable of S. Maurice de Clohars, who d. 1191, and who was born in this parish. Noyala was one of the largest parishes in the diocese of Vannes, and Pontivy was a chapelry in it. S. Géran, now a daughter church, was probably originally the head of a plou of Geraint, King of Domnonia. But now he is forgotten and replaced by S. Guirec. In this parish the canal between Nantes and Brest forms a series of backwaters and lochs. The Chapel of SS. Dredeneau is near the line and the canal. It is a cruciform building of flamboyant period, but of no architectural interest. It however contains a good 16th cent. statue of S. Bridget, and statues of the Brothers Dredeneau. According to the legend they were two princes who were murdered, and their bodies thrown into a marsh on the further side of the canal, where they were found by a pig. The figures are rude; one holds a book on which is written: "Ce Saint à combatu jusqu'à la mort pour la loi de Dieu, et n'a pas craint les menaces des infidèles parceque sa foi etait fondée sur la pierre." The Holy Well of the saints is in very good order and bears their statues. P. 4th Sunday after Easter; at S. Géran, 3rd Sunday in October; at Noyala, July 6th.

Stival. At the entrance to the village is the Holy Well of S. Meriadoc, late flamboyant to renaissance. The church is cross-shaped with a slated spire, and has no aisles. It has a boarded and painted roof, and the chancel is covered with paintings representing the legend of S. Meriadoc. The fine stained glass is in a deplorable condition. The E. window contains a Jesse tree. There are saints in the other windows. In the churchyard are a large late cruciform chapel and an ossuary.

Locmalo. The superb Chapel of N.D. de Quelven is an object of one of the most popular Pardons in Morbihan, on August 15. W. tower, transepts and gabled apse are all of late flamboyant. In the tower is a very fine rose window to the bell-chamber. The proportions of tower and spire are not however satisfactory, and the chapel imposes on one by its rich detail rather than by its broad features. It resembles S. Nicodème in Plumilliau, but the tower is very inferior. There are three porches, one under the tower and two to the south. The tower is half a century older than the body of the church. Choir and transepts are vaulted. There is a plain stone gallery for the minstrels in the S. aisle. In two windows in the choir is fine contemporary glass, a Jesse tree and the apostles. The rest of the glass is modern garish rubbish. The granite carving of the church is poor owing to the coarse quality of the stone.