Chapelle Sainte-Anne (ruines)

Île-de-Batz

On the eastern point of the Île de Batz, facing the open sea, stand the remains of a building far older than it looks. Specialists place its construction at the very end of the early Middle Ages, doubtless after the departure of the Norse raiders who had ravaged the Breton coasts in the 10th century — which would make it one of the oldest surviving witnesses of religious architecture in northern Finistère, several centuries earlier than most of the surrounding chapels. Its Latin-cross plan, its round-headed doorway and its Romanesque arches, today partly collapsed, keep the trace of this. Before the village moved to the centre of the island, this was the parish church of Batz, until its abandonment. An excavation carried out in the mid-19th century unfortunately brought down part of the arcading and several piers, leaving standing only a geometric carved decoration on one of them, sole remnant of the original ornamentation. Listed as historic monuments in 1980, these wind-battered ruins remain today an unusual spot for a stroll, where one makes out, among the grass and the loosened stones, the outline of a thousand-year-old island sanctuary, a few steps from the lighthouse and the island's shores.

Getting there : Free access, open-air site, communal property.

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

Ambient sound