Paris1972-Versailles2003

And I come back to the Finistére in my lovely Bretagne to tell you about another gem. I like to tell you again back at the Church Notre Dame de l’Assomption or St Michel in Quimperlé. Its once again in my road warrior mode to add new older pictures found in my vault that should be in my blog. Do see my other two posts on the church.  Hope you enjoy this latest post as I.

This Church of Notre Dame de l’Assomption is a Gothic church located on Place Saint Michel. It was built in two phases, at the end of the 13C for the nave. The choir, the bell tower and the porches, were rebuilt at the beginning of the 15C by the patronage of Duke Jean V, it is a fine example of the flamboyant Gothic style, which met with great success in Brittany.

The Church Notre Dame de l’Assomption retains the oldest dated sand pits in Brittany, about 1430 as well as a rich statue of the Virgin. Originally, the church was a chapel. We do not know the precise date of construction, it seems likely that it is later than 1266, and probably corresponds more to the 1270s. It was only in 1773 that it took on the function of parish church when the Saint-Michel church, on the eponymous square, fell into ruins.

.The nave corresponds to the primitive chapel, a large pilgrimage chapel 10 x 30 meters founded by Duke Jean Le Roux in the last quarter of the 13C. The simplicity of the original plan in a single vessel evokes the mendicant orders of the time, the sobriety of the style of the bays and the dedication to Notre Dame whose cult flourished in the 13C. The dimensions of the Church of Notre-Dame de l’Assomption are estimated at 36 to 38 meters by 10 meters; uncertainty about its precise length is due to demolitions at the ends of the church at the end of the 14C. In the 13C, it was perhaps extended by a narthex, lit by an oculus and probably pierced by a main porch. The church would therefore have been shifted towards the square, with an interior floor in steps and already two symmetrical portals near the choir. However, the nave has always been 11 meters high.  In 1373, the chapel was completely ruined by Bertrand Du Guesclin and Olivier de Clisson during the French occupation of the Duchy. The traces are visible: disappearance of the western facade and of the first bay(s) of the nave, later replaced by an adjoining house, artificial cutting of the gable wall, walled oculus and pierced with a loophole . The reconstruction will then take place but it is only in 1383 that the site will really resume due to a papal indulgence dated July 8. It will start with the south porch.

From 1418 until 1453, the site will expand. Under the impetus of Duke Jean V de Montfort and the annuity he grants, because of the birth of his son, the church will be restored and enlarged; we can also see the flamboyant Gothic style in these enlargements of the choir and the bell tower. From 1420 to 1453, it would become one of the first flamboyant Gothic worksites in Cornwall. The nave will be covered with a new frame in 1430. However, work will continue until the 1550s, when the stone covering of the choir, the crossing of the transept and the side chapels.  In the 16C, the new choir with an almost square plan extended the nave, doubling the surface of the chapel. The sand pits are the oldest dated sculpted sand pits in Brittany, the date indicated on one of the ermines is 1430. Their degradation led to their thorough restoration in 2011-2014, the revival of the polychromy and the bleaching of the vault.

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

There you go folks, a lovely Church Notre Dame de l’Assomption or also call of St Michel by the locals. It is worth the detour to pretty Quimperlé , check my other posts on the city worth the visit in my lovely Bretagne. Again, hope you enjoy the post as I.

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

We have come to Quimperlé often and always glad to be back. I like to give you again more of this wonderful monument, a must to visit here, Again, I have found me older new pictures to the blog that should be in so therefore, here i another post on 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

The Abbey Church of Sainte Croix was founded in 1029, and was one of the richest in Brittany in the Middle Ages.The abbey church is the only church in Brittany to have a circular plan modeled on the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem , In addition, its choir is raised and is placed above the crypt which remains wide open towards the entrance of the church. The abbey church complex were converted into a court and gendarmerie during the French revolution.

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 entumment. 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.

It retains important furnishings: the entombment from the early 15C, the 16C altarpiece, a goldsmith treasure from the 16C to the 19C,The woodwork in the sacristy dates from 1704. The Baroque carved wooden pulpit dates from around 1700. The robed Christ dates from the 17C. It comes from a Syrian tradition introduced into the West around the 8C. Brittany discovers it late. The Charentais limestone altarpiece is a major work of the Renaissance. It was placed opposite the main entrance in 1541, before being installed in 1732 in its current location. It presents the great prophets, the four evangelists, the twelve apostles. The crypt contains the tombs of Abbé Lespervez and Saint Gurloes. The Entombment, considered the oldest in Brittany, was erected in 1500 in the Dominican church. It was left subject to vandalism and bad weather from 1882 to 1967, which explains its relatively degraded state. It is now sheltered at the entrance to the crypt. Also a good fifteen polychrome wooden statues dating from the 15C to the 18C.

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

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 !!!

This is one of my favorite cities in all of Bretagne, and glad able to visit often, Therefore, is a pleasure to tell you again on the Church of St Mathieu in beautiful Quimper! I have a previous post on it but found me new old pictures that needs to be in my blog, Hope you enjoy the new post as I.

The new Church of Saint Mathieu replaces a 15-16C church. The tower and spire was built in 1845 , and the nave, transept and chancel built between 1895 and 1897, It was finally completed for service on December 13 ,1896. The Church of Saint Mathieu has a Latin cross plan with five naves. Semi-outdoor bell tower with bell chamber cushioned by an openwork octagonal spire decorated with hooks and framed at its base by four lanterns and four openwork pediments. Deep two-bay choir flanked by two side chapels opening onto the transept. Western massif carrying tribune and organ.

The first mention that we have of it was found in cartulary 56 of Saint-Corentin which tell us that in 1209 the Archbishop of Tours confirmed the cession that the Count of Brittany had made to the Bishop of Quimper, of the right of patronage that he had in the Church of Saint-Mathieu. The parish of Saint-Mathieu, seems to have been formed at the end of the 12C, by the dukes of Brittany, to serve the agglomeration on the district of Terre-au-duc formed to the west of the walled city of Quimper . The church was donated in 1209 to the Bishop of Quimper by Guy de Thouars, Duke of Brittany. In 1220, Renaud, elected bishop of Cornouaille, donated to the chapter, the Church of Saint-Mathieu; a canon held it until the French revolution. Afterward, the church was used in 1803 as a fodder store and stable.

The current bell tower is 52 meters above the pavement of the street: it is 10 meters longer than the old one; and the total length of the church, outside, is 54 meters, 47 ,50 meters inside. Its interior width is 20 meters, and its height, under the keystone, about 15 meters. The arms of the transept are each only 2 meters deep. The church, well filled, can contain 1,500 people seated.

From the old church we still can see the old furniture, such as the stained glass window of the Passion, at the back of the apse, the choir stalls, the paintings of the Stations of the Cross, the organ, and, at the bottom of the church, the altar of the Saint-Antoine de Padoue chapel, which is the old altar of the Sacred Heart, minus its baldachin and its statues. Everything else has been acquired since construction. There are three windows forming a triptych in which the whole life of Our Lord is summarized: the window on the left represents scenes from the life of Our Lord before his Passion, that in the middle, the Passion, and that on the right, scenes of his life after his resurrection, You see the wonderful stained glass windows of Saint-Charles, Saint-Elisabeth, Saint-Georges, and Saint-Martin.

The city of Quimper on its heritage: https://www.quimper.bzh/604-lieux-remarquables-a-visiter.htm

The Finistére dept 29 tourist board on Quimper:  https://www.toutcommenceenfinistere.com/article/quimper-capitale-de-la-culture-bretonne

The Quimper tourist office on its heritage, see the “fiche inventaire de l’église Saint Mathieu” for more info in French on the church: https://www.quimper-tourisme.bzh/quimper-ville-dart-et-dhistoire/

There you go folks, another nice monument at the beginning of a very old quant neighborhood of St Mathieu that takes you walking all the way to the Cathedral (see post). The area is full of nice shops and restos good for a detour as well. Hope you enjoy the new post on the Church of Saint Mathieu as I.

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