near a tarn, one of the sources of the river of Morlaix. The abbey
was founded on the site of the last battle fought between Judnal and
Conmore, usurper of Domnonia, 555. It takes its name from the "religou"
or bones which were found in great numbers on the battlefield. The
original settler here was S. Tanguy, disciple of Paul of Léon, but the
present church dates from 1132. The interior is a most interesting
example of 12th century work. The west front was rebuilt in the 18th
cent. On the N. side are the remains of the cloister of other monastic
buildings. P. 15th August.
TINTÉNIAC (I.V.) chl. arr. S. Malo. Reached by a tramline from Rennes.
Prettily situated. The church is modern. There are some old houses. A
menhir called La Roche du Diable.
At _Tréversien_ is the Château de la Fosse aux Loups, where the scene
is laid of Paul Féval's novel "Rollan Pied de Fer."
_Les Iffs_ and the Château of Montmuran may be visited from Tinténiac
(_see_ Becherel).
* TRÉGUIER (C.N.) chl. arr. Lannion. An old cathedral city at the
junction of the Jaudy and the Guindy. The town is on rising ground but
runs down to the water side to a little point. On the highest ground is
the cathedral, of nave and side aisles and two transepts. The church
was almost altogether constructed in the 14th cent. It was begun in
1339. It has, however, preserved an 11th cent. tower on the N. side
called de Tour de Hasting. It has the characteristic round-headed
windows and pillasters of the period. The N. transept is in this tower
and the pillars there with the Byzantine capitals and round arches
proclaim that they belong to the beginning of the 11th cent. The bases
are rudely carved, and bear the appearance of having been earlier
capitals reversed and employed as bases. But this is probably in
appearance only. What is of special interest to the visitor is the fact
that Tréguier cathedral belongs almost wholly to the Middle Pointed or
Geometrical period, which is not abundantly represented in Brittany.
The W. porch sustains a gallery, and the entrance is through a double
opening, a slender pillar supporting trefoils and sustains a quatrefoil
between them, all pierced. Above is a 2nd pointed W. window of no
particular merit: a pair of turrets with spirelets flank the western
façade. The cathedral has three towers, the northern Romanesque Tour
de Hastings, a central tower of the 14th cent. not finished, and with
a stunted cap on it, and the S. tower, above the transept of the same
date, but furnished with a naked, ridiculous spire added in the 18th
cent. The flamboyant window inserted in the transept is of the finest
quality, as are also those at the side of the transept. Happily, the
S. front of the cathedral furnishes a good object lesson in the study
of the development of tracery. Beginning at the W. end of the nave we
have two windows of the earliest description of tracery, two lights
sustaining a circle, all uncusped. The third window has two trefoil
headed lights sustaining a trefoil, but all rather clumsy in design.
Then we have the fourth window vastly in advance of the other; each
cusped light sustains a trefoil and both trefoils support a quatrefoil.
It must be mentioned, by the way, that a S. porch has been converted
into a baptistery, and the tracery in its window is modern. If we
pass on to the choir we have three windows; the first is very good,
geometric in design, but the second and third are of supreme richness
and beauty, revealing the style at its very best. Then look at the side
clerestory lights of the S. transept and its large S. window and we
see flamboyant or 3rd pointed also at its best. Then step within and
look at the second window from the west in the N. aisle of the nave,
and you see flamboyant in its decadence, when cusping was abandoned.
The S. porch is set below the flamboyant window of the S. transept
and is original, and, it must be admitted, far from pleasing. It has
a vaulted roof, the exterior being thus treated, and within sustained
by three ribs, between which is open tracery through which the eye
pierces to the vault above. The doorway into the church has statuary
about it much mutilated. The church within is fine. It is not over
lofty as are the great churches of the Isle of France and Normandy.
The pillars of the nave vary, and the moulding of the first two arches
is richer than the others. The triforium is plain till it reaches
choir and S. transept, where it is greatly enriched. The clerestory
windows are tall and good. The Romanesque pillars and stilted arches
in the N. transept should not be passed over. The choir ends in an
apse, and is seated with carved oak stalls. According to the cathedral
accounts, these were presented in 1648, but in style they appear much
older. On the gospel side of the high altar is a statue of S. Tugdual,
the founder of the see, with the appropriate inscription, "Etsi aliis
non sum apostolus, sed tamen vobis sum. Scitis quod precepta dederim
vobis per Dominum Jesum." S. Tugdual was son of Hoel and Pompeia; Hoel
was the son of Emyr the Armorican, who fled from Brittany to South
Wales in the 5th cent. Here he founded a Church, Llanhowell, near
Solva in Pembrokeshire, a very early curious structure resting on
cyclopean foundations, probably as old as the 5th cent. Tugdual and
his mother came over to Armorica, and first settled with S. Brioc, the
uncle of Tugdual, at Trebabu, not far from Brest. But Brioc returned
to Wales, where a plague was raging, to comfort the panic-stricken
inhabitants, and when he came back to Trebabu, the monks refused to
receive him, preferring the rule of a young man to one advanced in
age, whereupon Brioc departed and founded S. Brieuc. Tréguier when
Tugdual settled there was undoubtedly an ancient fortress, standing in
the fork between two rivers. He must have been a man of extraordinary
energy, for he scattered "lanns" or ecclesiastical centres throughout
Northern Brittany. But though Tugdual was the apostle to this district
and the founder of the church, he has been completely eclipsed by
S. Yves, whose monument has been reconstructed in the nave. It had
been smashed to pieces at the Revolution. The reconstruction is
eminently successful. S. Yves is, perhaps, the most popular saint in
Brittany. He was born at Kermartin, near Tréguier, in 1253, and became
ecclesiastical judge in the diocese. His, at that time, unheard of
probity in refusing bribes, and his consideration for sick and poor
gained general respect. He died on May 19th, 1303, on which day his
Pardon at Tréguier is celebrated. Every peasant who considers that he
has been wronged, who nurses a grievance, who is engaged in a lawsuit,
has recourse to S. Yves, as promptly as he who has a sick horse flees
to S. Eloi. On the N. side of the church is the Chapel du Dûc, opening
out of the aisle by three arches. An altarpiece is made up of fragments
of old carved oak. N. of the choir, entered either through a door in
the Tour de Hastings or through a gateway east of the church, is the
cloister. This was erected in 1468, and is therefore flamboyant, but
without weakness. The tower of S. Michel, 15th cent., stands outside
the town on a height. The church has been pulled down. There are some
old houses in the city, notably at the port, where is an eminently
picturesque group of two towers and two houses; one in the street is a
study in slated fronts.
The chapel of the old manor house of Kermartin now serves as parish
church to _Minihi Tréguier_. It is of the 15th cent. In the sacristy is
preserved a fragment of the breviary of S. Yves.
_Portblanc_, in the parish of Penvenan, is hoping to develop into a
watering-place. The situation is very pleasing, the sea is studded
with islands and bristles with rocks. The largest island is that of S.
Gildas, to which that Saint occasionally retired. It is rocky and has
been planted with Austrian pines. On it is a chapel of the Saint. There
is an abundant freshwater spring in the sands between the coast and the
island, only accessible at low tides. On the island is a dolmen, called
Le Lit de S. Gildas; it consists of four uprights sustaining a coverer
that measures 7 ft. by 4 ft. Near this is a rocking-stone. On another
islet the musical composer Ambrose Thomas built himself a château,
that is completely surrounded by the waves at high tide. Portblanc
was at one time far more important than it is now. It is alluded to
in _Richard II._ act ii. sc. i. On the road from _Penvenan_, opposite
to the entrance of a château, is a small menhir, 8 ft high, built
into the hedge. Another 13 ft high is near the village of Penvenan.
There is also a demi-dolmen in the parish. Penvenan church is modern
and execrable, but the little chapel at Portblanc is interesting.
Internally it possesses an arcade that appears to be Romanesque, but as
pillars and arches are thickly plastered with whitewash it is not easy
to determine their period. There is a N. transept, the wall of which
spreads outward at the base, battering considerably. The W. front and
S. front and the E. end of the chapel are flamboyant. The soil reaches
to the very eaves at the east end.
_Plougrescent_, a fallen menhir 19 ft. long, is near Maznoë. The parish
church is modern and very creditable. But the main object of interest
in the parish is the chapel of S. Gonery. The tower is early 1st
pointed, and was never completed. Above it is now a leaning wood and
lead spirelet. The chapel consists of a single nave, with chancel and
two chapels, one on each side of the chancel. The glory of the chapel
is its magnificent painted ceiling in ten lower ranges, representing
on one side the incidents of the Nativity, on the other those of the
Passion. Above these ten more compartments give the life of Our Lord
in glory. These subjects are curious; the most remarkable perhaps is
the reception of Adam and Eve into Heaven by Christ. In the body of the
church is a noble carved oak buffet, to serve as cupboard to the relics
of S. Gonery. It has on it the Twelve Apostles and the Annunciation.
The church, with the exception of the tower, is 15th cent., and
the paintings are of the same period. Unhappily through neglect of
attention to the roof, those near the tower are seriously injured
by the wet. On the N. side of the chancel is the fine renaissance
monument of Bishop Guillaume de Halgoët, 1599; on it is a recumbent
figure of the prelate. Some fragments of stained glass are in the
windows representing the Annunciation and Christ on the Cross. The S.
porch is bold and curious, a pent-house roof sustained on huge granite
corbels. Under the tower are the tomb and the "boat" of S. Gonery.
The tomb is reached by descending under a structure of the 17th cent.
Those afflicted with fever obtain earth from it which they tie up in
little packets, and return when well. Consequently several of those
little parcels of earth may be seen on the tomb. On the opposite side
is the boat, in which S. Gonery and his mother Libouban came over from
Britain. It is a curiously shaped stone trough, and probably actually
was the sarcophagus of the Saint. It nearly resembles the stone coffins
of the Merovingian period and of the 11th cent. Statues of S. Gonery
and of S. Libouban are one on each side of the altar, the latter
erroneously marked as N.D. de Bon Secours; the statue of the Virgin
is of alabaster, and of the 15th cent., and stands on an altar in the
S. chapel. The seacoast at Plougrescent is bold and fine with noble
cliffs. The day of S. Gonery is July 18, but the P. is on the 4th S. in
July.
TRINITÉ-PORHOET (M.) chl. arr. Ploermel. This place takes its name from
the county of Porhoet, which was formed after the expulsion of the
Northmen in the 10th cent. Josselin afterwards became the seat of the
Count. There was a priory here founded by the monks of S. Jacut, in or
about 1050. The old parish church was pulled down in 1806 and 1807 to
serve for the construction of the halles. La Trinité, which was the
priory church, is now that of the parish. It retains some Romanesque
pillars and arches. The choir was partly rebuilt in 1742 and 1787, when
also the tower and transepts were erected. This church is an object of
pilgrimage. The P. is on Trinity Sunday.
TAULÉ (F.) chl. arr. Morlaix. On the line to S. Pol-de-Léon. Near this
is Loquenolé (S. Winwaloe), with a most interesting church containing
some of the earliest work in Brittany, very early 11th cent., and
possibly of 10th. Observe the curious rude sculpture.
_Henvic_ has in its church paintings representing the story of S.
Maudetus (Mawes) and his sister S. Juvetta.
UZEL (C.N.) chl. arr. Loudéac, is not a place of much interest. The
church is of the 17th cent., altered in the 18th. The Chapel of Bonne
Nouvelle is of the 16th cent. Some ruins of the old château of Uzel
remain, and there is a house of 1620.
_Merléac_ has a Chapel of S. Jacques of the 14th cent. at the village
of Saint Léon. The central east window is perhaps the finest in the
Department; the tracery is all in granite, and it contains stained
glass representing eight scenes in the Life of the Virgin, and eight
scenes from that of S. Jacques. There are other windows representing
the Conception and the Assumption. The ceiling is painted (15th cent.)
with subjects from the Life of our Lord and the legend of S. James,
and a procession of angels forming a concert on seventeen instruments
of music. For a study of the shapes of musical instruments of the 15th
cent. this chapel should be visited.
_Quillio._ The church contains the woodwork transported thither from
the abbey of Bon-repos. Above the altar is a suspended Pyx.
_Grâce._ An allée couverte at the hamlet of Bois, running N. and S.
and 18 ft. long. It is composed of blocks of quartz. There are eight
supporters on each side and five coverers, but only one of these latter
is in place.
[Illustration: VANNES]
* VANNES (M.) chl. d'arr. Capital of the Department, and seat of a
bishop. The town is not remarkably picturesque. The walls remain in
places but built into, and only two gates with flanking towers have
been spared. The cathedral is very disappointing, and there are few
picturesque old houses. Vannes was the capital of the warlike Veneti,
whom Cæsar crushed in B.C. 57, when he butchered all the chiefs and
leading nobles, and sold their families into slavery. It became a
Roman town, called Duriorigum, and six Roman roads struck over the
country from it to Locmariaquer, Hennebont, Corseul, Rennes, Rieux, and
Arzal. A Roman necropolis has been found on the site of the artillery
barracks. At the beginning of the 5th cent. many towns dropped their
particular names and assumed those of the peoples to which they formed
centres, and then the place took the name which it has since borne
in Breton, Gweneth. Christianity having made some progress among
the Veneti, in 465 Perpetuus, metropolitan of Tours, assembled a
council at Vannes, and consecrated to it a bishop, Paternus. The city
remained Gallo-Roman; but throughout the 5th and 6th cents. British
emigrants arrived in such numbers, that in 590, Regalis, the bishop,
complained that he was, as it were, imprisoned within the walls of
the town by them. These colonists had their own laws, princes, and
ecclesiastical system, and would not recognise the bishop. In 496 we
hear of an Eusebius, king or governor of the town. An alliance was
entered into between the Armoricans and the Franks, and Clovis and his
successors were recognised as overlords. Whether the British chieftain
Weroch got into the city and established himself there is doubtful,
but his son Macliau did so, on his death. Macliau was in orders,
and married. On the death of the bishop he induced the clergy and
people to elect him as their bishop, and to satisfy their prejudices
dismissed his wife. No sooner, however, was he firmly seated on the
episcopal throne, than he sent for his wife and children. About eight
years later his brother Canao, secular chief of the Bretons, revolted
against the Franks, whereupon Macliau proclaimed himself Count as well
as Bishop. He was killed along with two of his sons in 577. Pepin
occupied the city in 753, and Louis the Pious visited it at the head
of an army in 818. In 843 Nominoe, governor of Brittany, shook off
the yoke of Frank allegiance. Then came the invasion of the Northmen,
and the disappearance of the Counts of Vannes, till 937, when Alan
II., Barbetorte, friend of Athelstan, was recognised as Count, and
transmitted the title to his descendants. The town walls were rebuilt
in 1270. In less than a century the War of Succession broke out and
Vannes had to stand four sieges in one year, 1342. John IV., conqueror
at Auray in 1364, repaired the walls, and extended them. The cathedral
church of S. Peter was burnt by the Northmen in the 10th cent. and
was rebuilt in the 11th at the same time as the abbey church of S.
Gildas de Rhuys. But the tower was added in the 13th cent. and the
whole of the nave and transepts, the former in 1452-76 and the latter
in 1504-27, consequently in the flamboyant style. The nave has no side
aisles, but chapels between the buttresses. In 1537 Archdeacon Jean
Danialo who had been in Rome, returned enthusiastic in favour of pagan
architecture, and to show the canons what he admired, constructed the
circular Chapel of the B. Sacrament on the north side, a beautiful
structure for its style. But at the same time the chapter was building
its cloisters, and they are full flamboyant tending to renaissance.
The apsidal Chapel of N.D. and S. Vincent was erected at the same time
also, and is thoroughly Italian. In the meantime the old Romanesque
choir showed signs of falling, and was pulled down in 1770 and the
present choir was built and finished in 1776. Then the chapter set
to work to transform the nave. All the tracery was hacked out of the
windows, and a plain barrel vault was added. The W. tower has had a
spire added to it recently, and the W. front was "restored" in feeble
style in 1868-73. Then the architect was entrusted with filling the
windows with tracery; and he, not comprehending the character of the
nave, inserted tracery of a century earlier in style. The N. transept
had a fine doorway, but it has been blocked up for a hideous baroque
retable and altar to stand against it. Thus the church, never very
fine, has lost much of its character and interest. In the N. transept
is the tomb of S. Vincent Ferrier, and above it his bust in silver.
Vincent was born at Valence in 1357, and in 1374 entered his novitiate
among the Dominicans. He was sent to Barcelona and Lerida to give
lessons in philosophy, but threw up the study and devoted himself
to preaching, and rambled through France, Spain, Italy, England,
Scotland and Ireland, as a revivalist preacher, but, of course, in
such countries as did not understand his tongue, the effect of his
sermons was lost. He spent two years in Brittany, where he cannot have
been of any use, as the peasants could not comprehend French. He died
at Vannes on the 5th April 1419, but the Pardon is on the 1st Sunday
in September. The other churches of Vannes are not worth looking at.
That of S. Paternus was built in 1727. The Museum of Archæology of the
Societé Polymathique du Morbihan contains many interesting objects from
the dolmens and tumuli of the Morbihan.
Vannes is situated at the distance of 5 kilometres from the Morbihan,
the inland sea that gives its name to the Department. Almost every day
two little steamers leave the port for the islets, but the time of
starting depends on the tide. The Gulf of the Morbihan is some 8 miles
long and about 15 miles wide. It communicates with the sea by a narrow
mouth only three-quarters of a mile across. It is nowhere deep; from
45 to 60 ft. is its depth. It is studded with low islands, of which
at the outside forty are inhabited and some fifty are cultivated. The
inhabitants live by fishing, and all the men are sailors.
This inland sheet of water is cut off from the ocean by two great
crab's claws, the peninsula of Sarzeau and that of Locmariaquer. The
scenery is by no means bold; sandy shores and low islets, and mud banks
at the fall of the tide. The archipelago is, however, very interesting
because of the numerous prehistoric remains on the islands.
The _Isle of Arz_ is about two miles long. Here was formerly a priory
dependent on S. Gildas, and it possesses a Romanesque church, unhappily
repaired and remodelled at various epochs. Near the little Cap de
Brohel and in the islet of Boëdic are megalithic monuments. At Penraz,
south-east of the village, is half of a cromlech or circle of stones 60
ft. in diameter. At Cap Brohel, ruined dolmens and fallen menhirs; at
Pen-lious three fallen dolmens and some menhirs. P. 8th September.
_Ile aux Moines_ is separated from the Ile d'Arz by a channel 60 ft.
deep at low tide. The ancient name of the island was Crialeis, in
Breton it is Ines Menah or Izenah. The prehistoric monuments in it are:
the great circle of stones at Kergonan, of which only half remains; the
fine dolmen of Penhap, some menhirs, and the ruined dolmens of Broel,
Vigie, Kerno, Roh-vras, Roh-vihan, Niol and Pon-niol. The island was
granted by Erespoe to the monks of Redon, but after the devastation
by the Northmen it was lost to the monks of Redon. The church is
modern and is dedicated to S. Michael. P. 29th September. The island
was colonised after the Northmen had swept it of its inhabitants, by
settlers from Rhuys. The costume of the women is almost the same, but
of a more antique cut and character. All the islands in this inland
sea, like the mainland have sunk at least 16 ft. since prehistoric
times. In the little islet of Er Lannig are two cromlechs, or circles
of standing stones; one is half submerged, and the other completely
under water, even at low tides.
_Gavrinis_ lies to the east of the Ile aux Moines. Although less
important than those already described, it is the most interesting
of all in the Morbihan, on account of its tumulus, 25 ft. high, that
covers a fine covered gallery, the stones of which are elaborately
carved with mysterious signs like the tattoo-marks of New Zealanders. A
gallery 40 ft. long leads to the central chamber, which is 5 ft. high
and 6 ft. 6 in. wide. The blocks are of a fine grained granite, not
of the island, but brought from a distance, with the exception of two,
that are of quartz, and these are unsculptured. Such as are carved,
were clearly so dealt with before they were erected in place, as the
working passes round the edges.
_Er-lanic_ is situated half a kilometre to the south-east of Gavrinis,
and here are the two cromlechs already mentioned, one dipping into the
sea, the other already in deep water. They are juxtaposed, forming an
8, and lie on the S. E. of the island. The first circle consists of 180
stones, but several are fallen, and it can only be seen complete when
the tide is out. One stone is 16 ft. high. The second circle can only
be seen at low tides.
_Ile longue_ contains a cairn that also covers a gallery. It has not
been fully examined.