Paris1972-Versailles2003

I am doing my best to introduce you to the off the beaten paths of my Brittany. Hope you are enjoying the ride as much as we do. This time the main topic is our wonderful  Kernascléden! The city center or Bourg here is located 13 km from Faouët, 11 km from Guémené-sur-Scorff and 29 km from Lorient, It is about 42 km from my house. I am taking you to the Church Notre Dame of Kernascléden !!!  Hope you enjoy the post as I. 

The Church Notre Dame is a granite church built in the style of the flamboyant Gothic, and you see on the outside, the beautiful flat bedside, the “men’s Porch” and the “ladies ‘ porch” each supporting a delicately serrated spoof of a shelter the statues of the once-polychrome Saints. These auxiliary entrances are located on the southern façade of the church; the women, separated from the men during the Mass, stood at the bottom of the nave with the children, in front of a space dedicated to the major fairs and festivals of the canton. The multitude of pinnacles with buttresses and other vertical elements is at the origin of the nickname “chapel with a thousand pinnacles”. The steeple itself, with modest dimensions, is in the same plane as the sober west façade. Inside, one of the two frescos of Brittany depicting a macabre dance persists and still underlines the trauma of the great plague of 1356. This work can be dated from the construction of the Church, that is the middle of the 15C and is the only one in the region to be accompanied, on a neighbouring wall, of a representation of hell, particularly evocative and frightening for the faithful of the end of the middle ages. We face the musician Angels dreaming perhaps of a visitor done by the painter Maurice Denis covering the vaults of the nave and choir, scenes of the life of the Virgin and of Jesus chanting pillars and walls. Several elements of the painted décor were recuperated in the middle of the 20C.

The Church Notre Dame is a high place of pilgrimage, and was built between 1420 and 1464, It will become parish church in 1908, It also has exceptional polychrome murals from the 3^rd quarter of the 15C, produced by four groups of different artists, Bretons for the macabre dance and the spectacle of hell, of the French school for the musical angels and the life of Christ. The church of Kernascléden has all the riches of flamboyant Gothic architecture. To these are added, inside, the mural frescoes which constitute one of the examples of French art of the 15C such as under the vaults of the north brace: the Musician Angels and the Ascension; on the choir, scenes from the life of Mary and Jesus; and under the south transept, the Danse Macabre and the Representation of Hell.  Note in particular, in the porch of the apostles, the openwork foliage. Never had so much virtuosity been deployed to excavate a granite that was so rebellious with a chisel.

The construction at Kernascleden of a first Christian sanctuary, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, was at the origin of the creation of a pilgrimage on an indefinite date in the locality. The importance of this pilgrimage needed the construction of a hospital to welcome pilgrims and the sick. Around 1420, the first chapel became too small, given the importance of the pilgrimage, or threatening ruin, the family of Rohan, owner of the premises, took the decision to build the present Chapel. Viscount Alain VIII of Rohan opened a construction site that would last about 44 years.

The Church also contains another treasure. A colony of bats is housed in its bell tower! That is why, next to the Church, walkers can visit the House of the bat in order to know everything from the mysterious world of these ladies of the night!

 The Pays du Roi Morvan regional tourist office on the church:  https://www.tourismepaysroimorvan.com/en/preparing-your-stay/to-see-and-do/religious-heritage/churches/eglise-notre-dame-1051303

There you go folks, again some wonderful town of off the beaten path of my beautiful Morbihan. We crossed the dept 56 and region of Brittany to show you not only France is the most visited country in the world, but Brittany is the third most visited region of France! Again, hope you enjoy the post on the Church Notre Dame of Kernascléden !!! as I.

And remember, happy travels, good health, and many cheers to all !!!