I am back into my best mode, road warrior! I am looking to find new areas not visited or hardly passing by for a more in depth look, and I am thrill to share it with the world! I came to La Guerche de Bretagne. The town is located in the department 35 of Ille-et-Vilaine in my lovely Bretagne region, It is located 25 km from Rennes, and 22 km from Vitré, and 171 km from my house. Therefore, let me start this new trip with the Basilica Church Notre Dame of La Guerche de Bretagne, interiors !!! Not to leave anything out, the text will be same for the exterior and interior posts, enjoy the photos!!! Hope you enjoy the post as I.
The Notre-Dame Basilica Church is in Gothic style from the 13-14C and 16C, restored and enlarged in the 19C. Pilgrimage sanctuary with local influence, former castle chapel of the lords of La Guerche then collegiate, founded in 1206 by William II, lord of La Guerche. Twelve canons were to pray there day and night for the salvation of the soul of the latter and his loved ones. In exchange, they could collect tithes, cultivate vines and use forest wood for heating. Essentially Romanesque and Gothic, the Basilica Church of La Guerche was subsequently erected as a minor basilica on March 12, 1951 by a brief from Pope Pius XII. Devotion to Notre-Dame de la Guerche dates back to the 10C. The current statue dates from the 17C: hollow, polychrome, it is carved from a tree trunk. The Virgin carries in her arms the Child Jesus who caresses her.
The Notre Dame Basilica Church built in Caen stone from 1869 to 1873, it extends a granite porch bell tower flanked by two aedicules pierced with ogival doors, rose windows, and ending in tapered gables. This spire rises to some 75 meters and contains one of the oldest ribbed vaults in Brittany. A canted choir from the 13-14C completes the church. Of Norman inspiration, it was decorated in the 19C with three small dormer windows surrounding mullioned windows with flamboyant tracery, The ample nave, 30 meters long, 11.40 meters wide, is flanked by aisles and finished with a pentagonal apse. The central nave, from the 16C, has a paneled vault, decorated with hourglasses and held in place by tie rods with sculpted necks with heads of animals, monsters or men. Indirect lighting is provided by the windows of the six bays of the side naves. A broken triumphal arch gives access to the 14C choir, abundantly lit by three large ogival windows.
Four stained glass windows from the 15-17C adorn the south aisle of the basilica. they are among the most beautiful in Ille-et-Vilaine The fragments of a Jessé tree (eleven panels from the 15C) occupy the window of the second bay of the south aisle. Shown are the Duke of Alençon John I, his wife, Marie de Bretagne, eldest daughter of the Duke of Brittany John V, as well as their weapons. The stained glass window of the Last Judgment (1537), in the third south bay, shows Christ seated on a rainbow, the Virgin Mary and St. John the Baptist kneeling, St. Michael, angels and demons, as well as the chosen and the damned. A 16C escutcheon, bearing the arms of the Dukes of Brissac, lords of La Guerche in modern times, is placed in the lower panels. In the next bay, the stained glass window has the theme of the coronation of the Virgin, the four evangelists, God the Father. These fragments date from the 15-16C. The arms of the du Guesclin, lords of La Guerche from 1379 to 1390, are next to those of the Dukes of Brissac. The last listed stained glass window is located in the penultimate bay of the south aisle. Dating from 1536, its subject is the Annunciation and the Coronation of the Virgin. Adorned with the shield of Yves Mahyeuc, bishop of Rennes, it constitutes one of the rare contemporary portraits of the prelate presented by Saint-Yves.
The choir of the church retains a double row of 9 carved wooden stalls In the Renaissance style, these stalls have elegant backs decorated with arabesques populated with various animals and plants, hercules, centaurs, griffins and other fantastic chimeras. A canopy, of great finesse, supported by foliage uprights, crowns everything. The organ, built by the Louis Debierre manufacturer of Nantes in 1888-1889, Inaugurated by Camille Saint-Saëns on April 3, 1889, it occupies the back of the apse, between the two rows of stalls. The neo-Renaissance Gisant buffet of William II de La Guerche (founder of the collegiate church, died in 1223), exhumed in 1889 and heavily restored since and a Louis XV style chair.
The town of La Guerche de Bretagne on its heritage : https://www.laguerchedebretagne.fr/spip.php?article110
The Brittany region tourist office on La Guerche de Bretagne : https://www.brittanytourism.com/offers/a-la-decouverte-du-patrimoine-la-guerche-de-bretagne-la-guerche-de-bretagne-en-3730002/
The Ille et Vilaine dept 35 tourist office on La Guerche de Bretagne : https://www.ille-et-vilaine-tourism.com/discover-ille-et-vilaine/culture-and-heritage/la-guerche-de-bretagne/
There you go folks, a beautiful monument for all to see, we love it !! The ride was wonderful in country roads the real life of France ! I bring you a beauty in the Basilica Church Notre Dame of La Guerche de Bretagne, interiors !!! Again, hope you enjoy the post as I
And remember, happy travels, good health, and many cheers to all !!!
Paris1972-Versailles2003 