Nouveau cimetière
MonumentHidden Treasure
Nouveau cimetière, located in Locmariaquer (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
- Locmariaquer, Département 56, Bretagne
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 47.5712, -2.9481
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00091379
In the heart of Morbihan, this parish cross in Locmariaquer combines a 17th-century Baroque base with a medieval trefoil cross, a stone testimony to the former Breton cemetery.
History
Standing in Locmariaquer's new cemetery, this parish cross is one of those discreet objects that encapsulate centuries of Breton religious history and craftsmanship. Transplanted from the old communal cemetery, it has stood the test of time and funeral reorganisations without losing any of its dignity or mystery. Far from the great cathedrals, it is here that a humble and tenacious granite piety is expressed. What makes this cross truly singular is the visible coexistence of two eras in the same monument. The octagonal, facetted, sloping base, with its robust proportions, betrays a 17th-century hand, a time of renewal in parish funerary practices in Brittany. But the upper part - the shaft, the squat colonnettes lined up in supporting tripods and above all the trefoil cross at the top - seems earlier, perhaps medieval, as if care had been taken to preserve an older heritage by hoisting it onto a new pedestal. A visit to this monument, which has been listed as a Historic Monument since 1939, is an invitation to attentive contemplation rather than architectural spectacle. You can get closer to read the figures carved into the stone, detect the signs of wear and tear in the local granite, and make out the hand of a Breton stonemason from the Grand Siècle in each column. Locmariaquer, a village in the Morbihan region world-famous for its megaliths, offers a different stratum of time here: not the Neolithic period, but the late Middle Ages and the rural Renaissance. The setting of the local cemetery heightens the emotion. Breton crosses, or "parish calvaries", are strong markers of identity in this region, where death has always been celebrated with particular solemnity. This one, modest in size but rich in meaning, is at once a spiritual landmark, a historical document and a work of folk art. A must-see for anyone interested in Brittany's funerary and religious heritage.
Architecture
The cross in the Locmariaquer cemetery is a composite monument whose architecture reveals two clearly distinct construction phases. The base is an octagonal plinth with sloping facets, meaning that each side slopes slightly inwards as it rises, giving it a trapezoidal silhouette characteristic of 17th-century masonry. This octagonal shape, both stable and symbolically charged, served as a solid base for crosses exposed to the weather in Brittany. On this base rests an original device: a horizontal table - a stone slab - supported not by a single shaft but by three squat columns aligned in a row, forming a sort of miniature trilithon in the Romanesque style. This arrangement is relatively rare in Breton funerary statuary and gives the whole piece a massive, archaic appearance. The short, deliberately muscular columns are reminiscent of the stoup or baptismal font supports found in Romanesque churches in Morbihan. At the top of the stone shaft is a trefoil cross, the ends of which each end in a three-lobed trefoil. This type of cross, common in 15th and early 16th century Breton sculpture, is carved from local granite with a bluish-grey patina that blends into the coastal landscape of the Locmariaquer peninsula. Figures - probably representations of Christ and perhaps the Virgin Mary or patron saints - adorn the upright, recalling the original function of these crosses: to be a stone catechism for the illiterate faithful.
Related Figures
Artisans tailleurs de pierre bretons du XVe-XVIIe siècle (auteurs non identifiés)Clergé paroissial de Locmariaquer (commanditaires présumés du socle XVIIe siècle)Inspecteurs des Monuments Historiques de l'entre-deux-guerres (instigateurs de la protection en 1939)
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Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Nouveau cimetière located?
Nouveau cimetière is located in Locmariaquer, Département 56 department, Bretagne region, France.
When was Nouveau cimetière built?
Nouveau cimetière dates back to a period built during the Renaissance (16th century).
Is Nouveau cimetière open to visitors?
Nouveau cimetière is currently closed to visitors.