Chapelle Sainte-Anne-la-Palud et sa fontaine miraculeuse

Plonévez-Porzay

On the dunes bordering the bay of Douarnenez, the chapel of Sainte-Anne-la-Palud overlooks a site that Breton tradition associates with one of the founding tales of the cult of Saint Anne. According to legend, driven out by a jealous husband on discovering her pregnancy, Anne crossed the sea to Judaea, where she gave birth to Mary, before returning to end her days in Armorica. It is said that Jesus, come to visit his grandmother, made a spring gush forth on this spot, the origin of the fountain and of the sanctuary dedicated "to the refuge of the infirm and the unfortunate". While tradition attributes the origin of the cult to Saints Corentin and Guénolé as early as the 6th century, the present chapel, in the neo-Gothic style, was built in 1864 by the architect Joseph Bigot on the site of a building of 1630. The monumental fountain facing it, built in 1870, bears the statues of Saint Anne and the Virgin. The grand pardon, the Breton pilgrimage festival, which every last weekend of August draws one of the most impressive gatherings of pilgrims in Brittany, unfolds over four days: torchlight vigil, high mass on the dunes, procession, then a day dedicated to the elderly. The granite statue of 1548, canonically crowned in 1913, is carried in procession there every year, perpetuating a devotion still very much alive facing the ocean.

Getting there : On the bay of Douarnenez, at the edge of the dunes; car park on site, accessible all year round.

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound