Page 147 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Brittany

nor thern finistÈre  145

Parish Closes

the phenomenon of Brittany’s parish closes (enclos paroissiaux), of which there are
almost 70 in Lower Brittany, is closely connected to the rise of the linen industry in the
16th and 17th centuries. the most numerous and elaborate parish closes are those in
the Élorn valley. here, encouraged by evangelizing missions, the religious fervour of the
faithful and the generosity of the rich juloded (local linen merchants), parishes would
virtually rival one another in their efforts to build the finest close. Centred around
cemeteries, these remarkable religious complexes consist of a church, an ossuary, a
calvary and a triumphal entrance, with Baroque altarpieces and sculptures carved in
lacelike detail.
The triumphal
In the ossuary, the entrance was the
bones of the deceased gateway through
exhumed from the
cemetery would be which the faithful
stored. The ossuary was entered the close. It
considered a bridge was intended to
between the living and prefigure the entry of
the dead. the righteous into the
kingdom of heaven.
Church

Calvary
Funeral
chapel

Field of
the Dead
South porch
Triumphal arch

The funeral
chapel (that at
Sizun is shown
here) was used as
a repositary for
bones when there The Blindfolded
was no more Christ, with two
room in the guards in 17th-century
church. The dead clothes, was carved
were originally by Roland Doré.
buried beneath The sculpture is
the floor of from the calvary at
the church. St-Thégonnec.

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