Nouveau cimetière
MonumentHidden Treasure
Nouveau cimetière, located in Pacé (Département 35), 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
- Pacé, Département 35, Bretagne
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 48.1486, -1.7693
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00090648
In the heart of Pacé, three 16th-century granite crosses display an exceptional Breton sculptural vocabulary: a three-lobed Virgin and Child, a frame calvary and a cross in the shape of a Roman chasuble.
History
The new cemetery in Pacé is home to one of the most unusual groups of granite crosses in Ille-et-Vilaine. These three monumental crosses were transferred from the old parish cemetery for better preservation, and are a rare and coherent example of 16th-century Breton funerary sculpture, at a time when Marian and Christological fervour was making its mark in every village on the Armorican peninsula. Each of the three crosses has a distinct architectural and iconographic personality, making it a veritable open-air cabinet of lapidary curiosities. The first, bearing the Virgin and Child framed in an elegant trilobe, illustrates the gentleness of the late Gothic style in Brittany. The second, known as the "bâtière", features a small moulded roof typical of the sculpted work of the inland Armorican region, a rare form that gives the whole an almost architectural appearance. The third, with its Roman chasuble cross adorned with palmettes, bears witness to a more archaic sensibility, inherited from the regional Romanesque period. Unlike the large parish enclosures in Saint-Thégonnec or Guimiliau, there are no crowds or audioguides here. Visitors discover these stones in the silence of a village cemetery, which heightens the emotion and intimacy of contact with these five-century-old sculptures. The local granite, cut with care, has acquired a grey-blue patina that blends harmoniously with the sky of Haute-Bretagne. Pacé, a commune now part of the Rennes region, has preserved in this discreet spot a fragment of spiritual memory that escapes the usual tourist circuits. To come here is to rediscover the depths of Brittany, where anonymous stonemasons carved their faith in granite for eternity.
Architecture
The three crosses stand out for the diversity of their formal solutions, all executed in the characteristic grey granite of the Rennes basin. The first cross rests on a base with rounded corners that supports an octagonal shaft: this eight-sided section is typical of 16th-century Breton sculpture, giving the piece visual lightness and structural rigidity. The Virgin and Child is framed in a trilobe, a Gothic motif treated with a relative flexibility that betrays the influence of workshops in the Rennes region. The second cross, known as the "bâtière", is the most remarkable piece in the ensemble. Its truncated pyramid base with canted corners supports an octagonal shaft at the bottom, which becomes square at the top - a rare and technically demanding formal transition. Its two sides feature the Virgin and Christ on the Cross respectively, while the frame-like crown - a small moulded roof cushioned by an octagonal prism - gives the whole a quasi-architectural character, reminiscent of the protective aediculae on processional crosses. The third cross is unusual in that it is shaped like a Roman chasuble, a flared silhouette with slightly curved arms reminiscent of liturgical vestments. Its base is embellished with sculpted palmettes at the top corners, an archaic decorative motif that suggests an influence from late Romanesque sculpture, which was still alive and well in inland Armorica at the beginning of the Renaissance.
Related Figures
Tailleurs de pierre bretons anonymes du XVIe siècleCurés de la paroisse de Pacé (XVIe siècle), commanditaires probables des croixInspecteurs des Monuments Historiques ayant instruit le dossier de protection (1946)Membres des sociétés savantes d'Ille-et-Vilaine ayant signalé l'intérêt des croix au XIXe-XXe siècle
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Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Nouveau cimetière located?
Nouveau cimetière is located in Pacé, Département 35 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.