The town of Colpo has a history directly related to the imperial house of France. I have written before on the Church Notre Dame de l’Assomption but this time was able to get inside, Therefore, here my update on the church with new pictures. Hope you enjoy it as I.
The niece and goddaughter of Emperor Napoleon I, Princess Napoleon Elisa Baciocchi at the instigation of the Emperor Napoleon III, in 1857, made a trip to Brittany and acquired the following year a vast estate of 300 hectares. She had the castle of Korn er Houë built there and took part of the towns of Bignan, Grand-Champ and Saint-Jean-Brevelay to create a new administrative and religious entity. And starting in june 1866, the Church Notre Dame de l’Assomption, finishing it in December 1867.
Princess Baciocchi died on 3 February 1869 in Colpo, where her funeral was celebrated with the utmost solemnity. After a temporary burial, her body was deposited, on February 3, 1870, in a tomb that occupies a chapel of the Notre Dame Church where she used to attend the Mass. The eagle lectern was carved in wood but all the statuary is in plaster. Her remains lie at the foot of the western wall of the chapel where the wall bears a marble cross with the inscription “IHS. Ego sum resurrectia et vita” (I am the resurrection and the life). The window still shows her coat of arms.
Overcoming objections and oppositions, the Princess Baciocchi obtained, on June 4, 1864, the creation of a new town and on February 21, 1866, that of a new parish. On the strength of the promise of a donation of 100,000 francs, on the imperial cassette, she financed the construction of a City/town hall, a church, a presbytery, a school, a relief house, several dwellings, thus giving rise from scratch to a town organized along an avenue planted with lime trees. In the center stood a column receiving a statue of the Emperor. In 1893 ,the column took the form of that of a Virgin. The church was blessed on December 23, 1867 and finished the following year. The princess offered the big bell and the prefect the second. The Grand Chaplaincy provided all the objects necessary for worship.
The Church of Colpo is dedicated to the Assumption of Our Lady. Its tall silhouette closes the perspective, at the end of the avenue. In front of the nave stands the bell tower-porch, at the bottom of which the portal is part of a triangular gabled avant-corps supported by twin dark granite columns with white stone capitals. Three concentric arches rest on abutments, and in the tympanum, a Virgin and Child, wrapped in a mandorla, receives the veneration of two kneeling angels. Laterally, two small engaged turrets contain the baptistery and the other a staircase. Higher up, the tower rises in two floors: that of the clock and that of the belfry, confined by corner columns and pierced by high arched windows. The polygonal arrow soars in the middle of four pinnacles, charged with narrow openings under gable and perforated with bays in four frames. The choir stalls and confessionals are of neo-Gothic inspiration, but on the pulpit basin, the four evangelists stand out in relief inside arched arcades between two cords of leaves. Only the windows in the middle of the apse are depicted with a crucifixion and images of Saint Charles Borromeo and Saint Augustine.
The town of Colpo and its heritage: https://www.colpo.fr/le-patrimoine
The town of Colpo on its tourist attractions : https://www.colpo.fr/le-tourisme-colpo
There you go folks ,nice Colpo and nice Church Notre Dame de l’Assomption ! You have imperial Colpo in my beautiful Morbihan dept 56 of my lovely Bretagne and my belle France. Hope you enjoy the post as I.
And remember, happy travels, good health, and many cheers to all !!!
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