Abbaye de Boquen
AbbeyHidden Treasure
Abbaye de Boquen, located in Plénée-Jugon (Département 22), is a medieval landmark built in the Middle Ages. The monument is currently closed to visitors.
Key facts
- Type
- Abbey
- Period
- Medieval (11th-15th century)
- Location
- Plénée-Jugon, Département 22, Bretagne
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 48.3182, -2.4458
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00089413
Founded in 1137 by Cistercians, Boquen Abbey boasts a Romanesque church with water-leaf capitals and a Gothic choir with finely chiselled stonework, nestling in the heart of the Breton moors.
History
Rising out of the damp green hills of the Côtes-d'Armor region, Boquen Abbey is one of the few medieval Cistercian foundations in Brittany to have retained sufficient substance for the imagination to take hold. Visitors approaching via the sunken lanes lining the valley first see the sandstone and granite walls scorched by lichen, before the large walled arches of the nave and the sober silhouette of the abbey church come into view - an architectural testimony to Bernardine austerity. What distinguishes Boquen from other Breton abbeys is the intimate coexistence of two ages of builder. The late 12th-century Romanesque nave, with its cylindrical columns and beautiful capitals adorned with stylised water leaves in the Cistercian tradition, stands side by side with a choir that was completely redesigned in the 14th century, whose wide Gothic bays with their stone grids cut with an almost lace-like elegance reveal a refined taste for filtered light. This superimposition of styles, far from being dissonant, creates an unexpected harmony. The partially preserved chapter house is the site's other jewel. Its arcatures falling on groups of columns with sculpted capitals evoke the splendour of a monastic interior that one would think had just been abandoned. The attentive visitor can still hear the echoes of monks deliberating under these vaults, in a silence broken only by the murmur of the nearby stream. The natural setting amplifies the emotion of the heritage: the abbey is nestled in a wooded setting, far from the main roads, in a solitude that recalls the original purpose of the Cistercians - to flee the world to better serve God. In all seasons, but particularly in autumn when the foliage takes on a rusty ochre hue, Boquen offers heritage lovers and photographers a melancholy and striking sight.
Architecture
Boquen Abbey illustrates with almost pedagogical clarity the two major phases of medieval building in Brittany. The nave of the abbey church, built at the end of the 12th century, belongs to the Cistercian Romanesque style in its most orthodox version: monolithic cylindrical granite columns, smooth water-leaf capitals in accordance with the Bernardine convention, which proscribes any figurative ornament likely to distract meditation, and a sober elevation punctuated by round arches. Although the side aisles have disappeared and the large arches of the nave are now walled up, the columns and their capitals remain in situ, almost intact witnesses to an aesthetic of restraint brought to its quintessence. The choir, remodelled in the 14th century, is part of the emerging Breton flamboyant Gothic style. Its wide windows, punctuated by mullions and geometrically carved stonework - quatrefoils, bellows, speckles - let in golden light that contrasts with the half-light of the Romanesque nave. This dialogue between the two styles gives the building a rare temporal depth. The chapter house, accessible from the site of the vanished cloister, retains its arcatures with grouped colonnettes and its capitals sculpted with foliage and stylised figures - one of the most meticulously carved sequences on the site. The presence of a vaulted cellar in the eastern corner of the north transept, as well as traces of a staircase probably leading to a former dormitory, allow us to mentally reconstruct the Cistercian canonical plan in all its functional rigour. The materials used - local granite and sandstone - anchor the building firmly in its Armorican territory.
Related Figures
Saint Bernard de Clairvaux — inspirateur spirituel et théologien de l'ordre cistercien dont les principes architecturaux guident la construction de BoquenConan III, duc de Bretagne — probable protecteur de la fondation cistercienne en Bretagne au milieu du XIIe sièclePère Alexis Presse — fondateur de la communauté monastique renouvelée à Boquen en 1936, figure marquante du renouveau spirituel breton au XXe siècleAbbé commendataire anonyme du XVe siècle — symbole du régime de la commende qui précipita le déclin de l'abbayeMoines de Beaulieu — communauté fondatrice envoyée de la filiation de Clairvaux pour établir Boquen en 1137
Tags
Nearby castles
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Abbaye de Boquen located?
Abbaye de Boquen is located in Plénée-Jugon, Département 22 department, Bretagne region, France.
When was Abbaye de Boquen built?
Abbaye de Boquen dates back to a period built in the Middle Ages (11th-15th century).
Is Abbaye de Boquen open to visitors?
Abbaye de Boquen is currently closed to visitors.
