CATHEDRAL BASILICA

Classified as a historic monument. It is, in France, one of the only complete cathedrals (minor basilica since 1901) of the ogival time (from the XIIIth to the XVIth century), which is the cause of its great architectural interest. One easily follows the campaigns having marked its construction and which did not harm the unity of the set. Around 1230, Mgr DERRIEN calls upon a Master of the Norman work, which imposes his material, te stone of Caen, "a stone with fine and tightened texture, with the hot color like flannel" (CH Abgrall). The erection of the nave continues under the episcopates of Mgr Yves (1262-1272) and Mgr de Kersauzon (1273-1327) who also built the Southern arrow and the Western gate, with its weapons .Mgr Pierre Benoît dedicates the building in 1334. The vaults of the nave and the collaterals, the Northern arrow, are raised in the the time of Mgr de Rochefort (1349-1385), whose weapons were "vairy of gold and azure". "an abstract of accounts of the house of Brittany, preserved at the National Library, contains the mention of a sum granted in 1431 to the bishop of Léon to rebuild his church" (Lécureux), nap which will be used to build the chorus: its vaults carry the weapons of Mgr Validire (1427-1432), those of Mgr Ferron (1439-1472) being above the high altar. It is still to Mgr Validire that one owes the geminated doors of the Southern gate. The keys of arches of the second bays of the transept carry the weapons of the Richard canons, whose enfeu dates back to 1539. The basilica is entirely completed in the second half of the XVIth century. By its austerity, the Western frontage symbolizes the Breton genius. The majority of the gates of cathedrals are richly decorated: a warhead in tierce point, stripped curves, three ogival bays, , plugged lancets, surmounted of very pure octagonal arrows, in particular the Southern arrow, with worked pinnacles, the Northern arrow is acuter (55 m), two galleries joining the bell-towers. On the foot of the Southern tower, a modest door "of leprous" opening on the vault reserved for these unhappy; with the pier of the gate, statue of Saint-Paul Aurélien. In the Southern porch, above the geminated doors, Virgin with the Child, unfortunately mutilated. In the center of the roof, pretty bell-tower that frames two pinnacles (worked in the stone, the rose window is splendid; it is surmounted by a gallery carrying out to the "window of excommunication". The nave has 16 m under vaults, like the chorus, this one being heightened. What strikes in the access, it is the balance of the proportions and lighting: "Never, on our premises, the imagination of the architect has played so brilliantly the complexities: pillars and their sheaves of posts, marquees and arcades are excavated as if with a magnifying glass, and this prospect which, from the columns of the entry of the chorus to the branches of cross, to the collaterals, to the ambulatories,is inserted in chiaroscuro like a trail of forest (The Roy)." The nave includes seven bays, of which the last is masked by the tribune of organs ( (1652), a work of DALAM. The glass roofs are sober, like the triforium or the up to date gallery. On the pillar of the first Southern bay, there is a beautiful Christ of XVth century. Two galleries run along the chorus, the first up to date one with bows in accolade ,and the second with hearts reversed in turn. Posed in 1745, the black marble high altar is due to Villars. Very beautiful ciborium in the shape of palm tree. A masterpiece of the wood carving, the stalls date back to the XVIth century and would deserve a long study: all the motives are different, certain pointing out the trades, others do not miss humour, such "this the duck musician who continues to to laugh at the quack of the cantors " (Roy). In the North, a rose with five bays and keystones. Vaults of XV-XVIth, of which that of Saint-Paul, with the Relics (the reliquary was drawn by the canon Abgrall and was carried out by the Lyonese Calliat. It contains the chief and a bone of the arm of Paul, a vertebra and Saint Hervé's shoulder blade, Saint Laurent's thighbone. The relics are authenticated by Mgr of Gouyon de Vaudurand). A flagstone bears the name of M.A.Picard "DCD the YEAR 1652", alive martyrologist, it attracted the interest of the Maunoir Father; DesMaps, Mersenne and Huyghens, in 1640, "held a correspondence about it". (CH Kerbiriou). In the bottom,altarpiece of the Rosary, altar of Saint Sacrament and a table representing the old city, with its monuments, of which a vault now disappeared, N.D. du Mont Carmel, "roomy, built well and largely haunted" (P. Pennec). Tombs of Mgr Rieux-Sourdéac, who had proclaimed the Virgin master of diocese, Mgr Budes de Guébriant (beautiful figure saint-politaine, one of the greatest missionaries having worked in China; born in 1860, appointed in Siufu in 1886, bishop in 1910; Archbishop of Marcianopolis and Assistant in the papal Throne, he died into 1935). Boxes containing craniums of the ancestors... In the apse, vault of Toussaints: under a tympanum decorated with a head of stag, enfeu of the canons Richard (1539). Plate of marble in the name of J.Y. de Coëtlosquet, born in the manor of Kerigou-Tregondern... Tombs of Mgr de la Marche ,last bishop of Léon, and Mgr of Visdelou. In the South, tombs of Mgr of Kersauzon and Mgr de Neufville;altarpiece of XVIIth century; enfeu, of which that of "Jehan le Scaff, Séneschal deLeon in MVc Anne du Bois Sieur and Dame de KGOET", that of Marguerite de Bréhand (1713). With the lace cut in the granite, the rosette is splendid. Contiguous to the porch, vault of the Baptistry, with a platform due to Derrien, craftsmen of XIXth. Length of the building, 84 m, width, 44 m.