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The guardians of the Town Hall square


( Municipality of Locmaria-Plouzané)





GPS : 48°22'28.8 N  4°38'36.3 W





  Under the crosses that crown them, two 25-century stone steles guard the entrance to the car park, in front of the town hall.

Access :   Head towards the church of Locmaria-Plouzané and park on the parking lot behind the two crosses.

   The stele on the right, when you are back from the town hall, is a rather rough truncated pyramid 1.65 m high. Its base is not very regularly trimmed.



  The one on the left, below, is a little higher: 1.95m. Of octagonal section, it has been further worked and presents cut sections that are unfortunately very eroded. Shown at the foot of a house in the village on a picture of M.Y. Daire 1, it has been recently moved.



   Obviously, these two steles from the Iron Age, which do not resemble each other, come from different places and may not be from the same period either. Their Christianization has preserved them to this day. Archaeologist G. Guénin, in a 1912 study, and on the faith of the teacher of the time, pointed out that the two stones would come from "Coat ar C'hras", the Wood of Grace, so called because the commoners, pursued by the lords, were pardoned when they could reach the wood and the two crosses.2 This legend appears in the hagiography of Saint Sané, supposed founder of Plouzané in the V th century, and of which he is the patron saint. It was transmitted to us by the monk Albert Le Grand, hagiographer of the Breton saints, who came to Plouzané in 1624. 3 However, as for many Breton saints, the very existence of Saint Sané has never been historically documented and has often been confused with Saint Senan, Irish bishop.

The current location of the two steles, in the centre of a booming urban area, makes it likely that they will move again in the more or less long term. Because these small monuments, since they have abandoned their funerary function, are regularly moved.



-1- M.Y. Daire: Iron Age steles in western Gaul.p.103. Centre Régional d'Alet. Rennes, 2005.

-2- Les menhirs isolés de l'arrondissement de Brest by G. Guénin, BSAB, t.37, p 293.

-3- "Ils advancerent en terre ferme jusques au lieu où est à present l’Église Parrochiale de Plouzané, où y avoit lors un temple dedié aux Idoles (à ce que j’ay peu découvrir) [...] la Tour de lieu l’Église Trevialle de Nostre Dame de Lou-Maria, distant de Guic-Sané d’un quart de lieuë, estoit jadis un Oratoire dedié à leurs fausses & prophanes Deïtez, situé lors au milieu d’une épaisse forest qu’ils nommoient Lucos ; & void-t-on, devant ladite Église, de part & d’autre du grand chemin, deux grandes Croix de pierre, lesquelles on tient que S. Sané y avoit fait planter, dés qu’il eust converty ce peuple à la Foy ; en reconnaissance de quoy, ces Croix ont esté depuis tenues en grande reverence, & servoient d’Azile & franchise pour les malfacteurs ; que, s’ils pouvoient une fois se rendre au grand chemin entre ces deux Croix, ils n’estoient point appréhendez de Injustice & l’appelloient Menehy Sant Sané."

Albert le Grand : La vie, gestes, mort et miracles des Saints de la Bretagne Armorique, ensemble un catalogue des évêques des neuf eveschés d'icelle . Nantes 1637.


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