A wonderful week at Gouesn’ach, near Quimper, was over and we set off for Sizun in dreadful weather.
Then, shopping done at Landivisiau, we wandered to Sizun via the back roads through Locmélar (more later) to Loc Ildut because I had noticed a cross on the map. The Chapel of St Ildut, 17C, is completely isolated – it is not part of a village yet across the small road is what used to be Le Relais des Dilegences, dating from a time when this used to be a stage on the public road from Landerneau to Angers.
The carvings are fine and the date over the doorway seems to be 1677. The Chapel is in an area made wealthy by the linen trade and this may explain the quality of the work. Is this an image of the saint over the doorway? Ildut was a monk who, interestingly, went to Wales in the 5C where he founded a monastery and a college in Llanwit Major. (I sense a visit to Wales…)
There are two fountains at the Chapel, the one with carvings which I can’t quite make out. And it seemed as if the water was canalised – look at the channels below. The Chapel was associated with miraculous healings, perhaps because of the fountains, and this may explain why they are elaborate, and why there are two.
The Chapel fell into disuse and disrepair, but since the 1960s local interest has revived and it has an annual Pardon which is on the last Sunday in July every year.Sadly the Chapel was locked. Perhaps it was the rain and the grey sky, but this was a place with ‘character’.
Further information
St Ildut
The Chapel of St Ildut
A bibliography for St Ildut
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