Glomel. The finest menhir in the Department is near the hamlet of Menhir, and is 25 feet high. Another is in the Bois de Coatcourcaral, 10 feet high. The church is of the 14th cent. with a flamboyant east window. Side windows under gables. N.D. de Trégernan has lost its tower, pulled down in 1842. The chapel has some good glass in it and possesses a Calvary.
Kergrist-Moelo. The parish church is of the 16th cent., with a square pinnacled tower and a rich porch of 1554.
Saint Aubin d'Aubigné (I.V.) chl. arr. Rennes. On the line from Dol to Rennes, a place devoid of interest.
Saint Aubin de Cormier (I.V.) chl. arr. Fougères. The church has a nave of the 14th cent. The rest is of the 16th. This was the scene of the battle fought in 1488, which dealt the last blow to the independence of Brittany. The Sire d'Albret at the head of 14,000 men entered the duchy as one of the suitors for the hand of Anne of Brittany, and he was supported by Henry VII. of England. Maximilian, King of the Romans, another pretender, hastened to enforce his claims as well. The King of France sent an army into the duchy which took Châteaubriant and Fougères and encountered that of Francis II. of Brittany at S. Aubin on the 28th July 1488. The French cavalry broke the ranks of the Breton infantry. Six thousand of these latter fell. The Duke of Orleans, afterwards Louis XII. and the Prince of Orange were taken prisoners. They were shut up in a cellar still shown under the Hôtel du Commerce.
Saint Brice-en-Cogles (I.V.) chl. arr. Fougères. Here are two châteaux, one La Roche Portal of the time of Henry IV.
* SAINT BRIEUC. Capital of the DEpartment of Côtes-du-Nord. Is a dull town situated on the Gouet to which a long descent leads and where is the tidal port. The estuary is between steep hills. The city is the seat of a bishop. It contains a number of picturesque old houses of carved wood with plaster between. The cathedral is low and disappointing externally, but not without dignity within. The only remains of the earlier church is the wall from the apse to the transepts that has been pierced to form chapels. In it are half pillars with capitals of a Romanesque character. The tower of S. Brieuc was formerly fortified and still preserves its loopholes for bowmen, but they have been blocked. This is of the 13th cent. The apse is of the 14th cent. with a triforium. The date is 1335-55. The lady-chapel is of the same period. The fine rose window of the S. transept is of the 15th cent., so is the Chapel of S. Guillaume, composed of two bays separated by tall cylindrical pillars without capitals but with the vaulting ribs springing out of them. The southern tower, with indications of fortification, belongs to the same century. The rose window between the towers is of the 16th cent. The stained glass and mural decorations in the spandrils of the arches of the apse are bad as bad can be. The organ case is composed of panels dated 1540. The plain leaded windows are far more pleasing than the garish stuff with which they are being replaced. In the church is the tomb of S. William, bishop of S. Brieuc. He was the son of Oliver Pinchon and was born at Saint Alban near Lamballe. He was elected bishop in 1220, and soon quarrelled with Pierre Mauclerc, Duke of Brittany, who drove him from his see, and he was obliged to take refuge at Poitiers. He returned to his diocese in 1230, and at once began the rebuilding of his cathedral, but died in 1234. He was an amiable, harmless man, and very considerate to the poor and suffering.
S. BRIEUC
The chapel and fountain of S. Brieuc, on the height to the N.W., are flamboyant and picturesque. On the S. side of the altar is a descent to the cave to which the Saint was wont to retire for prayer. Brioc was the son of an Irish occupant of Cardigan and a Saxon wife. He was educated by the Armorican S. Germain, a nephew of S. Patrick, who afterwards became Apostle of the Isle of Man. On the expulsion of the Irish from S.W. Wales Brioc left with a large number of followers and arrived at the mouth of the Gouet, where a kinsman, by marriage, Rigual had already settled, and he gave him the land where is now the city of S. Brieuc, and where had been a Gallo-Roman town. He died about the middle of the 6th cent. In the Rue Fardel is a house dated 1572. The modern churches in the town are architectural monstrosities. The Chapel of N.D. de l'Esperance is vastly pretentious, but wretched architecturally. The clerestory is filled with stained glass representing Breton Saints. Patronal Feast, S. Brieuc, 1st May. The valley of the Gouet may be followed down to the mouth, and an ascent made to the Tour de Cesson, which has Roman substructions, but was built up and altered at various times.