I am back in lovely Lannion north of me in department Côtes d’Armor 22 of my lovely Bretagne in my belle France. I have written before on Lannion of course, and just came back from another visit. This is my start of a wonderful trip, and bring back memories of my family’s visits over the years,The city is 95 km from Brest, 69 km from Saint Brieuc, 38 km from Morlaix, and 133 km from my house, I like to tell you again on the Church de la Trinité in Brélénevez of Lannion !!! Hope you enjoy the post as I.
You go down a steep road , and you can get to the Church of the Trinity in Brélénevez. There is a stair with 142 steps downward that we did not took as we rode right next to it on rue de Rouco ! This is a Roman style Church done at the end of the 12C to early 13C with rénovations to the 14C.The church is at Pl Ernest Laurent/rue de Rouco in the Brélénevez district of Lannion, There is a mise au tombeau from the 18C , portraits and statues of Saint Gilles and Saint Loup with a retable in marbre white and black in the altar.
The large church is over 50 meters long. It has a Latin cross plan ending in an ambulatory choir with a single axial chapel. The two side chapels, built from the 13C, form a false transept ;without correspondence with the central, continuous volume, built from the end of the 12C. The most remarkable exterior part is the beautiful chevet from late 12C of pink granite, still Romanesque in its design with its buttresses formed by columns engaged with sculpted capitals, its modillions where heads can be distinguished despite the pronounced wear and its tall narrow semicircular windows. The south porch, in pink granite, also dates from the end of the 12C. The south side, reinforced with masonry buttresses, is pierced with Gothic windows with fillings. The south transept of green shale is pierced by a beautiful flamboyant window, moved from the north chapel during the construction of the sacristy in 1845. The church is dominated to the west by a bell tower-porch in pink granite from the 15C . At the top, the recessed bell chamber is surmounted by an openwork octagonal arrow. Each of the two levels is surrounded by an open balustrade of three-lobed arcades.
The long nave of 11 travers spans wide including that of the bell tower, leads directly to the choir, without transept. Covered with painted paneling resting on sculpted sand pits, the long volume opens onto the aisles by broken arches resting on large round stacks. The crypt contains a remarkable polychrome Entombment from the 18C whose life-size figures are carved out of limestone. The church has five altarpieces. The back of the choir is occupied by a huge Baroque altarpiece which obscures the roundabout. Dating from 1660, it is built in tufa and adorned with black marble columns. Four other Baroque altarpieces from the 17C adorn the side chapels. In the south chapel, the Weavers’ Altarpiece frames a painting representing Pentecost. In the north chapel, an altarpiece dedicated to Saint Gilles and Saint Loup and the altarpiece of the brotherhood of the Trépassés, decorated with skulls. In the Chapel of Mont Carmel is a stucco altarpiece depicting the Virgin giving the scapular to Saint Dominic and Saint Catherine of Siena.
The Church of the Trinity ,also houses three classified sculptures: Christ of the Links, 16C, Virgin and Child with Saint John the Baptist, 16C. Above the door of the sacristy, a beautiful 15C bas-relief depicts the Virgin as an orante surrounded by six Apostles, with traces of polychromy. The large rectangular font included in the wall to the left of the front door is an old 13C grain measure engraved with an inscription in Latin and reused. In the Chapel of Mont Carmel, the vase of the 15C baptismal font, decorated with the heads of angels and hammered escutcheons, was purchased from the parish of Plestin-les-Grèves in the 19C. The pulpit and the lectern date from the 18C. The organ case was made in 1862. It replaced the 17C organ destroyed during the French revolution. It was restored and extended in 1980.
A bit of history I like tell us that the Church of the Trinity of Brélévenez is located in the former village of Brélévenez, which has become a district of Lannion since 1961, The church is a remarkable witness to the architecture of transition between Romanesque and Gothic art. The Church of the Trinity is built on top of the Crec’h Tanet hill or fire hill overlooking the city. It is about 50 meters above sea level. It is reached from the city center by a staircase of 142 steps, bordered by houses on one side. It seems to have been built from the end of the 12C on 11C substructures. Construction began with the choir and the crypt, then continued with the nave. No archive background shedding light on the stages of construction and modifications of the church, the dates are based solely on stylistic analysis.
In the 13C, two side chapels forming a false transept were added to the long volume of the church. In the 14C, due to its dominant position, the church was fortified by Olivier V, Constable of Clisson, during the War of Succession of Brittany . Jean IV, Duke of Brittany, brought in Philippe Le Hardi, Duke of Burgundy in order to obtain the demilitarization of the church to return it to worship . The fortifications built by Olivier de Clisson were dismantled, leading to the recovery of the walls of the nave. During the same period, the side aisles were taken over and the side chapels enlarged. The bell tower was built in the 15C. The choir was altered in the 17C to place the imposing Baroque altarpiece commissioned in 1660 by Count Pierre de Laval and his wife in the 18C. The chapel of Mont Carmel was built at the junction of the nave and the northern chapel. The sacristy was rebuilt in 1845 on the site of an older one, obstructing Romanesque windows .In the middle of the 19C, the staircase which connects the church to the lower town was rebuilt, weakened by the extraction of shale.
L’association Sauvegarde du patrimoine Religieux En Vie (SPREV) or the Association for the Safeguarding of Living Religious Heritage on the church : https://www.sprev.org/centre-sprev/lannion-eglise-de-la-trinite-de-brelevenez/
The city of Lannion on its history : https://www.lannion.bzh/attractive/cadre-de-vie
The local Granite Rose Coast on the church: https://www.brittany-pinkgranitcoast.co.uk/offers/eglise-de-la-trinite-de-brelevenez-lannion-en-2713691/
There you go folks, blending architecture, and history all under one roof at Lannion. This is a wonderful monument that should be visited, and we did again, Again, hope you enjoy the post on the Church de la Trinité in Brélénevez of Lannion as I.
And remember, happy travels, good health, and many cheers to all !!!
Paris1972-Versailles2003 