Only partly Romanesque: the Notre-Dame of Kerdro parochial church in Locmariaquer
The lovely coastal village of Locmariaquer is one of my favorites in all of Brittany. With Port-Navalo on the other side, it is one of the “gates to the Gulf or Morbihan”, this kind of “inner sea” which numbers, they say, 365 islands and islets... A pure paradise to learn to sail, with plenty of navigational difficulties; tricks and traps, and almost no serious risks.
My unmitigated love of the place does not however extend to the village church, as only its apse and transept are genuinely Romanesque, from just a few years after Year 1000. Further to an attack by the British in 1548, it had to be rebuilt during the 17th and 18th centuries. The bell tower was remodeled in 1817 above its Romanesque base. The defiance of the Ministry of Culture vis-à-vis this otherwise charming little church is reflected in the fact that, while its baptismal font (genuine), transept and apse were listed as Historic Landmarks as early as 1907, the rest of the building was not until... 2023!
Therefore, I will mostly show the Romanesque parts of the church, dedicated to the Virgin Mary as Notre-Dame. Aptly enough, “Locmariaquer” in Breton means “the built-up place of Mary”.
The transept crossing and, beyond, the two-row choir and the apse. The transept was covered with a flat wooden roof after the rebuilding of the nave and I have no way to tell how it was covered before that.
All the stonework you see in this photo is period Romanesque, and as you can see, there are quite a few very interesting sculpted capitals. We will look at them more closely over the upcoming days. Romanesque art was a lot about sculpture; it was back then that the idea appeared to “teach” the Scripture to unlearned masses by means of images.
Before that, during early Christianity, sculpted depictions were more an expression of the self directed at God, like a prayer or a declaration of faith cast in stone. Man was addressing God and proclaiming his faith in Him. Then, probably through witnessing how members of the congregation were interested in looking at those depictions, clerics conceived the idea of re-telling, in a permanent and always available manner, the tales of the Bible that they used to tell the faithful during Mass. Thus the historied capital was born, and then sculpture invaded every available space, pillars, tympani, door jambs, etc. It flourished until the advent of the Gothic Age, during which that teaching role was transferred to stained glass.
Only partly Romanesque: the Notre-Dame of Kerdro parochial church in Locmariaquer
The lovely coastal village of Locmariaquer is one of my favorites in all of Brittany. With Port-Navalo on the other side, it is one of the “gates to the Gulf or Morbihan”, this kind of “inner sea” which numbers, they say, 365 islands and islets... A pure paradise to learn to sail, with plenty of navigational difficulties; tricks and traps, and almost no serious risks.
My unmitigated love of the place does not however extend to the village church, as only its apse and transept are genuinely Romanesque, from just a few years after Year 1000. Further to an attack by the British in 1548, it had to be rebuilt during the 17th and 18th centuries. The bell tower was remodeled in 1817 above its Romanesque base. The defiance of the Ministry of Culture vis-à-vis this otherwise charming little church is reflected in the fact that, while its baptismal font (genuine), transept and apse were listed as Historic Landmarks as early as 1907, the rest of the building was not until... 2023!
Therefore, I will mostly show the Romanesque parts of the church, dedicated to the Virgin Mary as Notre-Dame. Aptly enough, “Locmariaquer” in Breton means “the built-up place of Mary”.
The transept crossing and, beyond, the two-row choir and the apse. The transept was covered with a flat wooden roof after the rebuilding of the nave and I have no way to tell how it was covered before that.
All the stonework you see in this photo is period Romanesque, and as you can see, there are quite a few very interesting sculpted capitals. We will look at them more closely over the upcoming days. Romanesque art was a lot about sculpture; it was back then that the idea appeared to “teach” the Scripture to unlearned masses by means of images.
Before that, during early Christianity, sculpted depictions were more an expression of the self directed at God, like a prayer or a declaration of faith cast in stone. Man was addressing God and proclaiming his faith in Him. Then, probably through witnessing how members of the congregation were interested in looking at those depictions, clerics conceived the idea of re-telling, in a permanent and always available manner, the tales of the Bible that they used to tell the faithful during Mass. Thus the historied capital was born, and then sculpture invaded every available space, pillars, tympani, door jambs, etc. It flourished until the advent of the Gothic Age, during which that teaching role was transferred to stained glass.