Chapelle Notre-Dame-de-Pitié

Lanvellec

Around 1660, a ploughman from the village of Saint-Carré named Jean Bizien reported having received several apparitions of the Virgin Mary — an episode that local tradition relates in detail, but which belongs, like every Marian apparition, to the realm of faith rather than of established historical fact. Guided by these visions, Jean Bizien found a statue of the Virgin in the ruins of a former 12th-century chapel, destroyed during the Wars of Religion, and set about rebuilding a sanctuary there with the help of the lord of Perrien and the villagers. The present building, completed in 1697, adopts a sober Latin-cross plan, with a loggia above the entrance to shelter the miraculous statue. What is, by contrast, perfectly documented and verifiable today is the scale of the Whitsun pardon — the Breton pilgrimage festival — held here every year: up to 15,000 pilgrims over three days, making it one of the largest popular religious festivals in Lower Brittany. On the Saturday, a procession gathers the "Miraculés" — pilgrims who have obtained graces — around a bonfire and songs in Breton; on the Monday, a traditional "promenade" keeps up the custom of young people meeting under the eye of their families. A fountain of 1700, once credited with virtues against rickets and melancholy, completes an ensemble far more alive than its modest architecture would suggest.

Getting there : Free access to the placître (chapel green) and the neighbouring fountain; chapel open for the Whitsun pardon.

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

Ambient sound