Chapelle Notre-Dame du Bon Secours de Kercohan
MonumentHidden Treasure
Chapelle Notre-Dame du Bon Secours de Kercohan, located in Berric (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
- Berric, Département 56, Bretagne
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 47.6434, -2.5639
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00091030
Nestling in the Breton countryside of Morbihan, this 16th-century chapel with its sharp curves and ornate pinnacles is a graceful testament to the piety of Renaissance lords in Brittany.
History
In the heart of the commune of Berric, in deep Morbihan, the chapel of Notre-Dame du Bon Secours de Kercohan stands discreetly in the midst of hedged farmland that seems to have changed little since the Renaissance. Far from the main tourist routes, it belongs to that category of monuments that you discover by chance or by passion, and that you never forget: a jewel of grey stone chiselled with a precision that betrays the ambition of its founder. What strikes you straight away is the sobriety of the whole, tempered by unexpectedly fine ornamentation. The three-sided chevet, with its sharp curves and its ramps decorated with crosses and flowering cabbages, reveals the hand of a stonemason well-versed in the late Gothic canons that endured in Brittany well beyond the Italian Renaissance. The pinnacles of the choir's buttresses add a slender verticality to this small building, giving it an architectural presence that far exceeds its modest dimensions. The experience of visiting the chapel is one of almost intimate contemplation. The rectangular chapel invites you to wander slowly through the nave, the choir and the tripartite chevet, which concentrates all the building's decorative energy. The unfinished buttresses of the nave tell the story of a construction that was interrupted, perhaps by the death of the patron or by the vagaries of the Wars of Religion that shook Brittany in the second half of the 16th century. The rural setting adds to the charm of the visit. Around the chapel, inland Brittany unfurls its landscapes of moorland and hedged farmland, punctuated by calvaries and granite farmhouses. Berric, a peaceful village halfway between Vannes and Redon, offers an unspoilt environment in which to fully appreciate this timeless monument. Lovers of Breton rural heritage and photographic strolls will be in their element here.
Architecture
The chapel of Notre-Dame du Bon Secours de Kercohan is part of the late Breton flamboyant Gothic movement, a style that endured in the Armorican peninsula long after the spread of the Renaissance in the Île-de-France region. It has a rigorously rectangular plan, with a single nave and a choir, ending in a three-sided apse - a typical layout for seigniorial chapels in the region in the 16th century. The most remarkable feature of the building is undoubtedly its chevet. Each of the three sides of the apse is crowned with a sharp curve, the sides of which are decorated with crosses and flowering cabbages, ornamental motifs typical of the Breton late Gothic repertoire. This stylised plant ornamentation, carved into the local granite with great skill, gives the chevet a lightness and elegance that contrasts with the usual massiveness of the granite. The choir's buttresses, cushioned by finely worked pinnacles, complete this coherent and refined decorative ensemble. The nave's buttresses, on the other hand, remain unfinished, silent witnesses to a construction process that was interrupted before completion. This dichotomy between the decorative richness of the choir and the bareness of the nave is one of the chapel's most interesting architectural features: it allows us to read, in the stone itself, the story of a project that was never completed. The materials used are those of the local building tradition - cut granite for the structural elements and ornamentation, slate for the roofing - giving the whole the characteristic grey-blue hue of monuments in the inner Morbihan.
Related Figures
Bertrand de Quilfistre — seigneur de Trémouar et fondateur présumé de la chapelle au XVIe siècleNotre-Dame du Bon Secours — figure mariale tutélaire à laquelle la chapelle est dédiée, au cœur du culte localLes tailleurs de pierre bretons du XVIe siècle — artisans anonymes auteurs des crosses, choux fleuris et pinacles du chevetLes seigneurs successeurs des Quilfistre — familles nobiliaires ayant entretenu la chapelle aux XVIIe et XVIIIe sièclesLes inspecteurs des Monuments Historiques de 1929 — responsables de la reconnaissance patrimoniale et de l'inscription protectrice
Tags
Nearby castles
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Chapelle Notre-Dame du Bon Secours de Kercohan located?
Chapelle Notre-Dame du Bon Secours de Kercohan is located in Berric, Département 56 department, Bretagne region, France.
When was Chapelle Notre-Dame du Bon Secours de Kercohan built?
Chapelle Notre-Dame du Bon Secours de Kercohan dates back to a period built during the Renaissance (16th century).
Is Chapelle Notre-Dame du Bon Secours de Kercohan open to visitors?
Chapelle Notre-Dame du Bon Secours de Kercohan is currently closed to visitors.
