Chapelle Notre-Dame-de-la-Pitié

Mellionnec

A stone's throw from the Nantes–Brest canal, the chapel of Notre-Dame-de-la-Pitié at Mellionnec owes its name to the statue of the Pietà it houses — the Virgin receiving the body of Christ taken down from the cross — venerated locally under the Breton name Itron Varia a druhez, "the Virgin of Sorrows". Built in the 16th century in fine dressed stone, it illustrates the architecture typical of central Brittany, with its powerful diagonal buttresses at the corners and its panelled barrel vault. Rare enough to be worth noting: the chapel came through the revolutionary period without suffering any damage, outside or in, when so many neighbouring religious buildings were looted or sold as national property. It thus preserves a polychrome wooden statue of Saint Gildas, itself listed as a historic object. Every year, on the first Sunday of September, the pardon of Notre-Dame-de-la-Pitié — the Breton pilgrimage festival — still gathers the people of Mellionnec and the surrounding area around this little sanctuary of the Guerlédan country. The site, near which the remains of a Roman bridge are reported, bears witness to ancient human settlement, between Gallo-Roman traces and a Marian devotion still alive today.

Getting there : Free access to the placître (chapel green), close to the Nantes–Brest canal; opened for the pardon on the first Sunday of September.

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

Ambient sound