Ancienne cathédrale Saint-Pierre d'Alet

Saint-Malo (Saint-Servan)

Alet is the ancient city at the mouth of the Rance, fortified in the Late Empire, and it is here, not on the rock opposite, that the Lives place the see of Malo: the deacon Bili, who writes around 870 for Ratwili, bishop of Alet, has his saint land here after the voyage with Brendan, has the dragon driven out here and, later, has a bishop at odds with his own people set out into exile, to die in the Saintonge. The bishopric of Alet is attested from 818. The cathedral whose ruins one sees is a pre-Romanesque building of the 10th century, with a plan rare in Brittany, with an apse at each end of the nave, on the model of the great Carolingian basilicas; the excavations also uncovered, beneath it, a Gallo-Roman building. Between 1144 and 1146 the bishop Jean de la Grille obtained from Pope Eugene III the transfer of his see to the island of Aaron, where a priory of Marmoutier kept the memory of Malo: Alet lost its cathedral, Saint-Malo gained its own. In 1255, in a dispute over taxes with the new town, the old church was destroyed; the eastern apse, restored in 1868, serves as a chapel. For the pilgrim of the Seven Saints, Alet is a paradoxical place: it is the only founding see that has no cathedral to visit, and the only one where one walks within the very walls the Lives knew.

Wikipédia — Cathédrale Saint-Pierre d'Aleth ↗

Getting there : From Saint-Malo intra-muros, 2.5 km by way of the port of Les Bas-Sablons to the Cité d'Alet (bus or 30 minutes on foot); car park at the foot of the fort of the Cité. The ruins are freely accessible, beside the path that goes round the peninsula; the eastern apse, fitted out as a chapel, can be seen from outside.

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

Ambient sound