Chapelle Saint-Antoine

Plouezoc'h

Set at the crossroads of the old roads from Morlaix, Lanmeur and Plougasnou, the chapel of Saint-Antoine welcomed in the 16th century the travellers who took these ways — Anthony the Hermit, saint of the Egyptian desert invoked against fire and skin diseases, being traditionally the patron of travellers and itinerant merchants. Built in 1574, the chapel has a simple but carefully wrought plan, with a wooden porch closed by a balustrade and a choir with two aisles ending in a circular apse; the whole, entirely panelled in carved wood, illustrates the skill of the Léon carpenters of the late Renaissance. Left abandoned, the chapel fell into ruin in the 1970s, threatened with disappearance like so many Breton rural buildings of that period. It owes its survival to the association Les Amis de Saint-Antoine, which has been restoring it on a voluntary basis for more than thirty years. Three pardons (the Breton pilgrimage festivals) now punctuate the life of the sanctuary: that of Saint Anthony on 26 July, then those of Saint Gonven on 9 August and Saint Melar on 23 August — a calendar of summer devotions that perpetuates, in the little Trégor, a local pilgrimage tradition still very much alive.

Getting there : Free access to the surroundings; open during pardons and events.

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

Ambient sound