Fontaine Saint-Brieuc et chapelle Notre-Dame-de-la-Fontaine

Saint-Brieuc

The Life of Saint Brieuc, written around 1050 by a monk of Saint-Serge of Angers who kept his relics, has the Welsh saint land with a hundred and seventy-five disciples and leads him, after a first monastery in the Trégor, to the banks of the Gouët, where he founded the monastery that would become Saint-Brieuc. Local tradition places his oratory near a spring, at the bottom of the town, on the slope that descends from the cathedral: this is the fontaine Saint-Brieuc. The town made a sanctuary of it at the end of the Middle Ages, precisely at the period when the pilgrimage of the Seven Saints is best attested: in 1407 Marguerite de Clisson, countess of Penthièvre, founded against the spring a chapel dedicated to Notre-Dame. The Gothic canopy that still covers the fountain, with its vault and its arches, is the only remnant of that ensemble: the chapel was demolished in 1799 to make barricades of it, then rebuilt in 1838; two statues of Brieuc and Tugdual, carved in 1896, adorn its façade. The saint's relics, for their part, are elsewhere: kept at Angers since the 9th century, they came back only in part in 1210, when Bishop Pierre obtained a portion of the head, an arm and two ribs for his cathedral — the starting point, at Saint-Brieuc, of the founder's cult.

Wikipédia — Chapelle Notre-Dame-de-la-Fontaine ↗

Getting there : On foot from the cathedral of Saint-Étienne: go down the rue Saint-Guéno and then the rue de la Fontaine-Saint-Brieuc, five minutes. The fountain, beneath its Gothic canopy set against the chevet (east end) of the chapel, is visible from the street at all times; the chapel, in the care of an association, opens on certain occasions.

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

Ambient sound