Chapelle de Saint-Houarneau

Bourbriac

Behind its Breton name of Saint-Houarneau lies in fact Saint Hervé, one of the most popular saints of Brittany: a blind monk of the 6th century, poet and healer, always depicted with his young guide Gwic'haran and the wolf he is said to have tamed after it had devoured the donkey that carried him — a legend symbolising the victory of good over evil. The pardon of Saint-Houarneau, the Breton pilgrimage festival celebrated each year in mid-June or late July depending on the year, still gathers the parish around a mass, a procession, pipers and the traditional tantad, the ritual bonfire that closes the festival. Threatened with disappearance, the chapel underwent a vast restoration campaign led since 1986 by the Comité de Saint-Houarneau, founded by Father Marcel Derrien, with the support of the commune; it reopened in September 2017 and was recently enriched with a contemporary stained-glass window blessed during the pardon. This blend of 16th-century rural architecture, devotion to a major historical saint of the Trégor and a still-living pardon makes it an emblematic place of Breton popular piety, kept going by the sheer effort of a local association rather than frozen as a mere relic.

Getting there : Free access to the placître (chapel green); chapel open notably during the annual pardon

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

Ambient sound