Paris1972-Versailles2003

I have come to Morlaix several times and plenty of posts but there are always those pictures that got away and kept in my vault, Well, its time to show them to you, me and the world on the beauty of Morlaix , nice Finistére dept 29 of my lovely Bretagne, Something off the beaten path but worth stopping by me think, therefore, here is my latest on the curiosities of Morlaix , Hope you enjoy the post as I.

I will cut the text short as have several posts on these monuments in my blog already, This post is to enjoy the older new pictures found in my vault, Thanks for reading me since 2010 !

The Church of Saint Melaine is of flamboyant Gothic style (15C) dedicated to Melaine de Rennes. The Priory of Sainte-Mélaine  was founded between 1149 and 1157 following a donation of Guyomarc’h III, Lord of Morlaix. The Church was built at the end of the 15C.

The Church of Saint-Mathieu  was during the 11C that the Abbey of St. Matthew near Le Conquet, founded in Morlaix, the Priory of Saint-Mathieu.  The current church was built in 1824; it replaces a Gothic church dating from 1498, succeeding itself to the primitive priory church probably Romanesque. The Bell Tower, it, dates from the 16C. It is one of the first witnesses of the Renaissance style in Brittany.

The Church of Saint Martin .In 1128, Hervé II, viscount of Léon, gave the abbey of Marmoutiers its village of Bourret, near Morlaix, with the chapels of Saint-Augustin and the Madeleine. The parish which depended on the order of Saint-Benoît was very extensive. At the time of the concordat it was again returned to worship and “the altar of white marble, spotted with reddish cupboards which had been deposited with the citizen Le Bozec, with the two angels of white Carrara marble, of a rather fine work” resumed their former place in the choir. The Church of Saint-Martin only dates from the 18C, its overall plan is a Latin cross ending in a semicircle both at the apse and at the ends of the transept, where we notice steps or angles which gracefully complicate the laidout.

The Place Allende & Duchess Anne’s House, A half-timbered house from the end of the 15C with a gable on the street. Interior layout characteristic of the houses of Morlaix with manor hall, monumental fireplace and staircase in Pondalez.

The Viaduct was built from 1861 to 1864 during the construction of the railway line linking Paris to Brest. 292 meters long, 58 meters high, 14 arches and 9 rings, 11,000 m3 of stones… The first floor of the viaduct is open. And go down by the alley of La Roche.

The Quai de Tréguier is about 200 meters long ,On it you have the several houses going back to 1677 still standing, From the Quai de Tréguier, all other streets in the parish being named the Grande Venelle district, which connects to the quai de Tréguier to the Rue de Ploujean. In 1720, the quay was already built over almost its entire length, A remarkable building here is the Hôtel de François du Parc from the 17C described as a large square pavilion flanked by a round turret. It ended on the quay of Tréguier by an advance supported by pillars and forming spears at the entrance to the district. This is where on August 8, 1944, around 15h (3 p.m.), the arrival to Morlaix of the first American vehicles, liberating the city.

The city of Morlaix on its heritage: https://www.ville.morlaix.fr/VIVRE-A-MORLAIX/Tourisme/A-la-decouverte-de-la-Ville/La-balade-patrimoniale

The Bay of Morlaix tourist office on its heritage:https://www.baiedemorlaix.bzh/en/discover/

The Bretagne region tourist board on Morlaix : https://www.brittanytourism.com/destinations/the-10-destinations/pink-granite-coast-morlaix-bay/morlaix/

There you go folks a nice walk about the nice picturesque town of Morlaix in upper lovely Bretagne.  Up the alley from my house, and always a nice trip. Hope you enjoy the curiosities of Morlaix post as I.

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

We have come here often and always glad to be back. I like to give you a bit of new text and new older pictures not yet in my blog,and they should, me think. I have done several posts on the city but feel some monuments deserves an additional post . Therefore, let me tell you more of the Abbey Church of the Holy Cross (Sainte Croix). Hope you enjoy it as I.

It alone is worth the trip to Quimperlé , the Abbey Church of the Holy Cross or Eglise Abbatiale de Sainte Croix.  It’s a  jewel and in  splendid conditions. It is here that all started… It the most prestigious monument of the city of  Quimperlé, an abbey founded in the 11C by the Count de Cornouaille, Alain Canhiart following a miraculous cure.  From the 11C it has preserved its interior a wonderful museum of works of arts. The choir of monks is a one of the best realizations of Roman art, the crypt from the 11C is still preserved, a entombment of Christ sculpture in about 1500 ,oldest in Brittany,a grand retable a major work of the Renaissance from 1541, a  Christ en robe (dressed Christ)  ,and a pulpit from the 17C are ,also, remarkable , A must to see indeed !!

One of the most remarkable in Brittany with the only circular plan, a central rotunda 30 meters in diameter, 17 meters high, to which 3 apses are attached in a trefoil plan whose rectangular leg shows an 18C facade under a 19C bell tower. Its choir of monks opens onto a raised platform of 1.30 meters. Below a crypt with an entombment. At the top, you can admire a Dressed Christ donated by Claude Lancelot to the 17C. There are only 3 in Brittany. The carved wooden pulpit from the early 18C and its crypt are summits of Romanesque Art, It comprises two floors, an 11C crypt divided into three naves, covered with groin vaults falling on engaged columns and containing ancient tombs and containing two recumbent figures from the 15C. Upstairs is the monks’ choir with low arcades, lit by eleven largely splayed windows with small columns, rosette scrolls and interlacing, rolled leaves, back-to-back birds and a few animals and rare human figures.The sculpted centerpiece is a Renaissance altarpiece dating from 1531 of Taillebourg stone, sculpted on the theme of the teaching church around Christ, with prophets, evangelists and apostles, Mary, the virtues, the doctors or some profane heroes.

The painting “The Adoration of the Shepherds of Bizien dates from 1635 and is in the apsidiole. The neo-Romanesque high altar is a gift from Empress Eugénie. And a rich statuary especially in the 2 apsidioles…The Entombment ,curiously the head of Jesus appears on the right, supported by Nicodemus. Inspired by the publication of the golden legend of the Dominican Jacques de Voragine, we note the extremely rare presence among the disciples, of the Pharisee Gamaliel, the master of Saint Paul, and of his son Abibon. It is to this providential saint that will often be assimilated, for sounding reasons, the highly suspect Saint Diboan, invoked mainly in Cornouaille and Vannetais areas.The altarpiece is done by artists who have perfectly mastered the art of the Italian Renaissance and are perhaps natives of Italy. The theme developed is that of the teaching church gathered around Jesus. Five registers are superimposed from bottom to top: the busts of characters from the Old Testament, including the great prophets, the four evangelists, the statuettes of the twelve apostles, those of the virtues ,and of the Virgin who constitutes the sum of them), and the busts doctors of antiquity associated with the great doctors of the West. The decoration unites, with great virtuosity, a profusion of motifs in a symmetry that is only apparent.

The Abbey Church of the Holy Cross houses a good fifteen polychrome wooden statues, from the 15C to the 18C. Several of them belong to the heritage of the old trevial church of Saint-David. Some are visible in the church. The statue of Sainte Marguerite extricating herself from the dragon and not slaying it can date back to the end of the 16C. Deposited at the bishopric of Quimper for a long time, it returned to its original setting in July 1998. Notre Dame de Vérité is a large 18C statue very similar to those made by the sculptors of the Léon navy, and which are similar to figureheads. Saint Jacques the major is a beautiful work of the 16C, unfortunately mutilated of an arm and its staff. Dressed as a pilgrim, the saint may have come from the nearby Dominican or Jacobin convent.

The abbey was sold as national property in 1790 during the French revolution. The church became the capital of the parish of the lower town and the old convent buildings were assigned, successively or simultaneously, to different administrations (district headquarters, court, town hall , school and sub-prefecture). The old convent buildings, property of the department of Finistère, remodeled several times since the beginning of the 19C with the exception of the cloister and the stairs , now house the magistrate’s court as well as offices and staff accommodation of the national gendarmerie (police) The south-east corner pavilion was transformed in the first half of the 19C into a district court, then demolished in the 1970s to be replaced by the current building housing the Post Office. The former abbey house became, at the end of the 19C, a hotel for travelers (Hôtel du Lion d´Or), then was disfigured in the 20C by the addition of a floor. The bodies of buildings surrounding the cloister house a square floor and an attic floor; only the west wing, including the south pavilion, has a basement. A limestone sundial, stamped with a hammered coat of arms, is placed in the break of the southern attic.

The Parish of Quimperlé on the abbey church and others: https://www.paroissesquimperle.fr/%C3%A9glises-chapelles/quimperl%C3%A9/

 The Local Quimperlé Terre Océane tourist office on Quimperlé: https://www.quimperle-terreoceane.com/en/discover/our-towns/quimperle/

The All starts in Finistére dept 29 tourist office on Quimperlé: https://www.toutcommenceenfinistere.com/quimperle-cite-histoire-art-creativite

The Bretagne region tourist board on Quimperlé: https://www.brittanytourism.com/destinations/the-10-destinations/quimper-cornouaille/quimperle/

There you go folks another gem of my lovely Bretagne on quant nice Quimperlé , a must to visit while in the area ! This is the Abbey Church of the Holy Cross or Sainte Croix. See my other posts on the church and Quimperlé in my blog, Hope you enjoy the post as I,

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