Cinq croix
MonumentHidden Treasure
Cinq croix, located in Ploubezre (Département 22), 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
- Ploubezre, Département 22, Bretagne
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 48.6926, -3.4446
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00089471
Five 18th-century wayside crosses in Ploubezre, jewels of Breton granite statuary, have been listed as Historic Monuments since 1925 - a rare testimony to popular devotion in the Côtes-d'Armor region.
History
In the heart of the Trégor region, in the commune of Ploubezre, five wayside crosses form a singular group that can be found at the bend of sunken lanes and on the Breton moors. These stone sentinels, erected in the 18th century, once punctuated the rural landscape as spiritual and geographical landmarks for locals and travellers alike. Their inclusion on the Monuments Historiques list in 1925 testifies to the early recognition of their heritage value, at a time when France was just beginning to compile an inventory of its small-scale rural heritage. What makes this group of crosses particularly remarkable is precisely its plurality: five crosses grouped together, probably arranged along a procession route or at strategic crossroads in the area, is a rare phenomenon in Brittany, where isolated crosses predominate. Their grouping evokes the practices of collective devotion specific to Breton Catholicism, where processions, pardons and rogations structured liturgical time and village space. Carved from local granite, the preferred material of Trégor stonemasons, these crosses bear witness to the skills of 18th-century Breton imagiers. Each one probably features a finely-worked Christ on the Cross, sometimes accompanied by a Virgin or a patron saint on the shaft, in the iconographic tradition of the region. The grey-blue granite of Ploubezre, with its patina of three centuries of weathering and golden lichen, gives them a presence that is both austere and moving. To visit these five crosses is to plunge into the intimacy of an unchanged rural Brittany, far from the beaten tourist track. In this landscape of hedged farmland and moorland, the attentive walker will discover a spirituality rooted in stone and earth, where each cross tells a story of faith, toil and belonging to the land.
Architecture
The five crosses at Ploubezre are part of the great tradition of 18th-century Breton wayside crosses, characterised by their sober monumentality and precise Christological iconography. Each cross is probably made up of a monolithic granite shaft, square or octagonal in cross-section, resting on a splayed cubic base that ensures its stability in the ground. The crosspiece, carved from a single block or assembled together, bears a Christ in the round or in high relief, his features carefully sculpted despite the hardness of the material. Some may feature a Pietà or Virgin and Child on the reverse, a common practice in the Trégor region. The blue-grey granite quarried locally around Lannion is the only material used in this collection. This medium-grained granite, renowned for its resistance to the elements and its ability to retain golden lichen and moss, gives the crosses their characteristic patina. The typical dimensions of this type of monument range from 2 to 4 metres in total height, including the shaft and base, which ensures that they stand out well in the hedged landscape. The formal simplicity of these crosses - no canopy or shelter, minimal ornamentation limited to a few mouldings on the base and a fleur-de-lys or Breton knot at the end of the cross - bears witness to a mastered folk art, distinct from the great monumental calvaries such as those at Guimiliau or Plougastel-Daoulas. It is precisely in this restraint that their beauty lies: the strength of the faith is expressed here in the simplicity, the raw granite, the essential sculptural gesture.
Related Figures
Les tailleurs de pierre trégorois du XVIIIe siècle, artisans anonymes ayant sculpté les croix dans le granite localLes missionnaires montfortains ou jésuites itinérants, probables instigateurs de l'érection d'un tel ensemble dévotionnelLes recteurs de la paroisse de Ploubezre au XVIIIe siècle, commanditaires et gardiens de cet héritage liturgiqueLes inspecteurs des Monuments Historiques de 1925, qui reconnurent la valeur de ces cinq croix et obtinrent leur inscription protectriceLes membres de la Société d'Émulation des Côtes-du-Nord (XIXe-XXe siècle), érudits locaux ayant documenté le petit patrimoine rural du Trégor
Tags
Nearby castles
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Cinq croix located?
Cinq croix is located in Ploubezre, Département 22 department, Bretagne region, France.
When was Cinq croix built?
Cinq croix dates back to a period built during the Renaissance (16th century).
Is Cinq croix open to visitors?
Cinq croix is currently closed to visitors.
