Chapelle Notre-Dame de Béléan

Ploeren

According to tradition, the chapel of Béléan owes its origin to a crusader's vow. Jean du Garo, lord of the place, is said to have been taken prisoner by the Turks during the Seventh Crusade preached by Saint Louis in 1248: shut up with his squire in a chest loaded onto a ship, he swore that if he survived he would raise a chapel on his return. From this episode — unverifiable in its details but consistent with the context of Breton departures for the crusades in the 13th century — a first chapel is said to have been born, which fell into ruin and was then restored in the 15th–16th centuries: the present roof timbers, shaped like an upturned boat's hull, date precisely from 1457. The rectangular building, roughly 18 metres by 7, built of medium ashlar and ringed inside by a stone bench, was registered as a monument historique in 2020, following a restoration supported by the Fondation du patrimoine. Beyond its architecture, Béléan remains above all a living place of devotion: as recently as 2016, numerous candles burned there permanently and a notebook received the requests and thanks of visitors who had come to pray to Our Lady. Little known outside the Vannes country, this small rural chapel illustrates the persistence, to this day, of the local pilgrimage practices that still punctuate the Breton religious calendar.

Getting there : Free admission

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

Ambient sound