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Notre Dame of Trézien Church

( Municipality of Plouarzel)




GPS : 48°25'26.2 N  4°46'04.1 W





Access :
  From Le Conquet, take the direction of Brest and turn left towards St-Renan. At the top of the hill, leave this road and take the D 28 towards Plouarzel. Go through Ploumoguer. Just before entering Plouarzel, at the roundabout, turn left towards Trézien. 1.5 km after the wind turbines, take the 1st road on the right and park at the cemetery car park.

  From St-Renan, take the D5 towards Plouarzel. Go through this village and turn left towards Le Conquet. At the roundabout continue opposite towards Trézien. 1.5 km after the wind turbines, take the 1st road on the right and park at the cemetery car park.


  The small village of Trézien was once a truce in the parish of Plouarzel. The present church dates from 1876. It took the place of an old chapel of the XVIth century which had become too small. It was indeed a place of pilgrimage and devotion to Notre Dame of Bon Secours, or Notre Dame of Trézien, whose polychrome statue inside the building attracted many faithful. Several ex-voto, paintings and models of boats, testified to the gratitude of the population towards the Virgin Mary for wishes that she would have granted.


Photo J.Guillet, St-Gildas, (Loire-inf ) undated
Archives of the association Tre Arzh of Plouarzel



The old chapel of Trézien.
Drawing by M. l'abbé Kervellec from a sketch by M. Cloarec.
Extract from Chanoine Henri Pérennès : Les chapelles de Plouarzel , Langonnet 1940.




The new chapel built in 1876

Built in just six months, the new building consists of a nave with six arches flanked by two aisles, a false transept formed by two side chapels and a vast chancel. A slender bell tower overlooks the entrance gate above which a marble plaque bears the Du Chastel motto 1.


Word for word: Well you will arrive.
The full currency is  Da vad e teui mar Doe : Well, you'll arrive if God wills.


  This chapel became a church when, by order of the bishop, in 1945, the parish of Trézien was created. However the term trevial church was already used about it in 1715.
The interior, very sober, is of neo-gothic style. A grandstand overlooks the entrance.





  The chancel is dominated, on the right, by the polychrome statue of Notre Dame of Trézien, wearing a crown, like her Son. On either side are the stalls coming from the old chapel and intended to accommodate canons during the services.





Two other statues still adorn the building. We recognize Saint Joseph and Saint Anthony.




Saint Anthony of Padua ( 1195 - 1231) is clothed in his Franciscan bure
and holds the child Jesus in his arms, sitting on an open book
as he said he had seen him in a dream.



  The stained-glass windows of the chancel illustrate the requests for protection from Notre Dame de Trézien for human activities related to the sea, the home and the land.

       


Outside, don't miss to see the fountain below in the meadow. The water of its spring, thanks to Notre Dame de Trézien represented by a statuette housed in a small niche, was reputed to cure rheumatism.



In 1856, Rector Cloarec, of Plouarzel, wrote to his bishop : 2

"To relieve children who cannot walk, a small shirt is dipped into the fountain and the child is put on the shirt once dry. Lower Breton does not believe it is superstitious to use the water from the fountain."

And he adds, quite frankly:

"If the process is successfull, he attributes its glory to Mary; if healing does not take place, he remains convinced that he was not in the state of he wanted to deserve the favours of the Blessed Virgin".



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Thanks to the association Tre Arzh and its president Jean-Claude Jézékel
for their help and loan of documents.



Yannick Loukianoff

READ MORE


-1- About the Du Chastel family, see on this website the page dedicated to the Trémazan Castle
-2- The complete report of the Rector Cloarec appears in the n°24 below of PLOUARZEL TUD HA BRO :





Association Tre Arzh Plouarzel, 2004. Broché, 154 p.
This book is available at the Plouarzel
municipal media library and on sale from the association  Tre Arzh.




Chanoine Henri Pérennès. Langonnet, 1940
Paperback, 68 p.


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