Chapelle Notre-Dame de Hirel

Ruca

According to local legend, the chapel of Hirel owes its existence to a shepherdess who, at the end of the 15th century, found a small statue of the Virgin in a field at the place called Hirel. Each time it was moved to the church in the village, the statuette mysteriously returned to where it had first been found - a sign taken as a divine wish to see a sanctuary built on the spot. The noble family of Boisriou then undertook the building, completed in 1548, of a granite chapel dedicated to Notre-Dame de Hirel. A wooden statue of the Virgin, sheltered in an outdoor niche, and a 16th-century cross protected by a small roof - positioned so as to be visible from the road - still bear witness to this story today. The pardon, the Breton pilgrimage festival, celebrated every 15 August, keeps alive the memory of this legendary foundation: the procession traditionally follows the route that passes in front of the cross, clearly visible from the path. Registered as a monument historique (historic monument) since 1953, the chapel of Hirel, away from the main tourist routes of the Emerald Coast, remains a typical example of those rural sanctuaries born of a legend of a Marian discovery, a motif found throughout Brittany but one that nonetheless keeps its local flavour here.

Getting there : Free access to the placître (chapel green); chapel open during the pardon on 15 August.

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

Ambient sound