Chapelle Saint-Michel de Brangolo

Theix

The name Brangolo, said to mean "the hill of light" in Breton, betrays the antiquity of the site: four Gaulish stelae still stand near the chapel, remnants of a pre-Christian place of worship which the Church later overlaid with its own devotion, as happened on several high points in Brittany. The present building, dedicated to Saint Michael, was built of granite in the mid-16th century, with a finely dressed stone west elevation; its windows and south door were altered at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries, and a sacristy was added between 1810 and 1844. Inside, the panelled roof timbers carry a carved decoration of animals and the arms of France and Brittany, dominated by an astonishing crocodile's head cut into the central tie-beam. Registered as a monument historique as early as 1925, restored in the 1970s and again after the discovery in 1987 of frescoes depicting a Way of the Cross, the chapel of Saint-Michel de Brangolo continues to host each year, on the last Sunday of July, a pardon (the Breton pilgrimage festival) organised by the Amis de Brangolo association — a sign that local devotion, for its part, has never been interrupted over the centuries, even though the site was probably sacred well before the coming of Christianity.

Getting there : Free admission; annual pardon on the last Sunday of July, organised by the Amis de Brangolo association

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

Ambient sound