Chapelle et fontaine de la Trinité
MonumentHidden Treasure
Chapelle et fontaine de la Trinité, located in Cléguérec (Département 56), is a Renaissance château built in the 16th century. The monument is currently closed to visitors.
Key facts
- Type
- autre
- Period
- Renaissance (16th century)
- Location
- Cléguérec, Département 56, Bretagne
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 48.1196, -3.0907
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00091159
In the heart of Morbihan, this flamboyant granite chapel and its Renaissance fountain form a sacred ensemble of rare coherence, where the sculpted calvary, rood beam and 16th-century stained glass windows interact with Breton stone.
History
Nestling in the deep bocage of Cléguérec, in inland Brittany, the chapel and fountain of the Trinity is one of those devotional complexes that make up the uniqueness of Breton religious heritage. Far from the main tourist routes, this place of popular piety retains an intimate, authentic atmosphere that the centuries have not altered. The apparent modesty of the building - a small granite volume with a sober layout - conceals a wealth of ornamentation that surprises and delights the closer you get to it. What sets this ensemble apart from the countless rural chapels in Morbihan is the architectural complementarity between the chapel and its fountain. While the chapel blends a late flamboyant vocabulary with classical touches - visible in the triangular pediment portal and the colonnaded bell tower - the fountain displays a highly mature Renaissance iconographic programme, with its large sculpted shells, bracketed pinnacles and calvary rising to the top of a monumental gable housing the sacred spring. Inside the chapel, visitors are greeted by a wood-panelled vault whose warmth contrasts with the coldness of the stone. The sculpted rood beam immediately draws the eye towards the choir, where precious fragments of a 16th-century stained glass window remain. The historiated sablières, adorned with figures and plant motifs carved into the wood, bear witness to the skill of Breton craftsmen during the Renaissance, who were adept at combining Christian imagery with decorative fantasy. The fountain, whose square basin collects the waters gushing out beneath the statuette of the Holy Trinity, is the soul of the place. In Brittany, these sacred fountains are the scene of a thousand-year-old cult of water, Christianised but never totally detached from its Celtic roots. The fountain at Cléguérec, with its Calvary featuring five figures - Christ, the Virgin Mary, Saint John and the two thieves - offers a strikingly expressive meditation on the Passion. The whole complex takes less than an hour to visit, but leaves a lasting impression, reinforced by the tranquillity of the surrounding hedged farmland.
Architecture
The Chapel of the Trinity is a simple building constructed entirely of granite, the material of choice in Breton architecture. Its western façade, the most elaborate, is punctuated by two corner buttresses crowned with flamboyant pinnacles, a direct legacy of late Gothic architecture. Between them, a classical portal with a triangular pediment, added in the 18th century, introduces a note of geometric rationality. The façade is crowned by an elegant bell tower, consisting of a slender spire supported on a drum of cylindrical columns - an architectural solution typical of Breton chapels of the period. The more restrained south facade features windows with flamboyant Gothic infill and a sculpted fleur-de-lys. Inside, the nave's painted wood panelled vault gives it a warmth typical of Breton interiors. The sculpted rood beam, a liturgical element marking the symbolic separation between the nave and the choir, forms the focal point of the interior space. In the choir, the historiated runners - low beams decorated with figures - display a sculpted programme combining sacred scenes and secular motifs, reflecting the Breton taste for imaginative storytelling. The surviving fragments of 16th-century stained glass bear witness to the original glazing, whose colour palette was intended to illuminate the sacred space. Architecturally, the fountain is a building in its own right. Its monumental gable, pierced by a niche with an embrasure housing the statuette of the Holy Trinity, is flanked by pinnacles and crowned by a calvary with five remarkably expressive figures. The three visible facades - west, east and north - are adorned at the top with large shells sculpted in high relief, a Renaissance motif typical of the decorative repertoire of 16th-century France. A square granite basin, fed by the sacred spring, surrounds the fountain.
Related Figures
Artisans tailleurs de granit bretons du XVIe siècle (anonymes, auteurs des pinacles et sablières flamboyantes)Sculpteurs de la Renaissance bretonne (anonymes, auteurs du programme iconographique de la fontaine)Clergé paroissial de Cléguérec (commanditaires présumés des campagnes d'embellissement successives)Anne de Bretagne (figure symbolique du rattachement de la Bretagne à la France, période de construction de la chapelle)
Tags
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Chapelle et fontaine de la Trinité located?
Chapelle et fontaine de la Trinité is located in Cléguérec, Département 56 department, Bretagne region, France.
When was Chapelle et fontaine de la Trinité built?
Chapelle et fontaine de la Trinité dates back to a period built during the Renaissance (16th century).
Is Chapelle et fontaine de la Trinité open to visitors?
Chapelle et fontaine de la Trinité is currently closed to visitors.