Croix du 15e siècle dite Croix de la Belle Place
MonumentHidden Treasure
Croix du 15e siècle dite Croix de la Belle Place, located in Plémy (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
- Plémy, Département 22, Bretagne
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 48.3489, -2.6613
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00089411
A sculpted jewel from the 15th century, the Croix de la Belle Place in Plémy features on two sides a Virgin crowned with the Child and a Christ on the Cross of overwhelming sobriety, a rare testimony to Breton devotion in the Middle Ages.
History
In the heart of the Costarmorican bocage, in Plémy, stands one of the most endearing wayside crosses in the Côtes-d'Armor: the Croix de la Belle Place. Listed as a Historic Monument since 1964, this 15th-century carved stone work alone embodies the richness of Brittany's rural heritage, so often overlooked in favour of the great cathedrals and manor houses. What immediately sets this cross apart is the quality of its double-sided sculpture, a veritable iconographic programme condensed into a few centimetres of relief. On one side, a crowned Virgin holding her Child on a broad throne evokes the majesty of the Romanesque Virgins in Majesty, transposed into a late Gothic style imbued with humanity. On the other, Christ on the Cross accompanied by his faithful reminds us that these crossroads monuments were first and foremost places of daily prayer for villagers and travellers. Visiting the Croix de la Belle Place is like stopping at the edge of a sunken lane and letting time fade away. The base, roughly trimmed at the corners, the arms joined at the top by cut-off sections characteristic of flamboyant Breton statuary: every detail reveals the hand of a local stonemason, an anonymous craftsman whose skills had nothing to envy the sculptors of the big cities. The setting itself adds to the emotion: set in the agricultural landscape of central Brittany, the cross converses with the hedgerows, sunken lanes and granite farmhouses that make up the unspoilt Penthièvre region. Far from the hustle and bustle of tourism, it is still very much a part of its territory, the silent guardian of an area where the sacred and the everyday have never been separated.
Architecture
The Croix de la Belle Place is of the Breton "flat cross" type, with the shaft carved from a single block of stone - probably local granite, the preferred material of Armorican stonemasons. The overall shape is that of a Latin cross, with the rather short arms connected to the shaft by the cut-off sections characteristic of the late Gothic style, creating an elegant transition between the volumes and reinforcing the solidity of the whole. The base, deliberately left rough with its corners cut away, contrasts with the precision of the carving on the upper face of the cross. This treatment of the base is common in Breton outdoor statuary: it anchors the cross physically in the earth, while symbolically signifying the emergence of the sacred from the raw material. The bas-relief sculpture adorns both sides of the cross with a controlled composition. On the main face, the crowned Virgin is depicted seated on a large chair-shaped throne, holding the Christ Child in the manner of the "Sedes Sapientiae" (Throne of Wisdom), an iconographic type inherited from the Romanesque period but here interpreted with the gentle expression typical of late Gothic. On the opposite side, Christ on the Cross is surrounded by figures - probably the Virgin Mary and Saint John - in the traditional Crucifixion composition. The flatness of the relief, far from being a technical limitation, lends a remarkable graphic power to the whole, accentuated by the patinated erosion of the stone.
Related Figures
Anne de Bretagne — duchesse de Bretagne (1477-1514), dont le règne correspond à l'apogée de l'art breton gothique flamboyant, contexte artistique dans lequel s'inscrit la création de la croixFrançois II de Bretagne — duc de Bretagne (1458-1488), sous lequel la piété mariale et l'érection de croix de chemin connurent un essor remarquable dans le duchéArtisan tailleur de pierre local anonyme — sculpteur du XVe siècle, probablement formé dans l'un des ateliers de la région de Saint-Brieuc ou du Penthièvre, auteur de l'iconographie à double face
Tags
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Croix du 15e siècle dite Croix de la Belle Place located?
Croix du 15e siècle dite Croix de la Belle Place is located in Plémy, Département 22 department, Bretagne region, France.
When was Croix du 15e siècle dite Croix de la Belle Place built?
Croix du 15e siècle dite Croix de la Belle Place dates back to a period built during the Renaissance (16th century).
Is Croix du 15e siècle dite Croix de la Belle Place open to visitors?
Croix du 15e siècle dite Croix de la Belle Place is currently closed to visitors.