Visit a twice restored church. and other Roscanvel, France Things to Do Tips

The small church of Roscanvel was seriously damaged by Allied action during the Liberation in 1944. Four years later Pierre Tuarze. a newly ordained Priest took up his first post as Rector.

A man with a great knowledge and love of religious art he made it his life's work to restore the Church. Encouraged by the support of Parishioners he emabarked on the task of removing all trace of war damage from the church.
Master painters and woodworkers were found - many local to the area - and the glowing colours of 18th century art work and carpentry were recovered.
But the young Pastor was not happy with the old plain glass windows which he felt detracted from the beauty of the restored treasures of the Church.
He remembered seeing, 10 years before, the cover of an illustrated Christmas magazine on which was a picture of one of the works of France's Master glass maker - Auguste Labouret.
Undaunted Touarze set out to contact him - and found he was now living just a few miles away in Crozon.
The world renowned artist was delighted to undertake the work and so his beautiful, fairy like figures and decorations came a tiny church in an out of the way village. The glass was made using Labouret's special technique t(hat ensured the everlasting brilliance of the colours) at his foundry in Rennes and there was a grand ceremony to celebrate the opening of the restored church inMarch 1950.

But in September 1956 a fire in the church destroyed all the works of restoration; all that remained were the windows. It was not then realised that the efforts of the firemen and local people to quell the flames by supplementing the water with sea water would, over time cause damage to the metal window frames.
By 2006 they were deemed unsafe and it was feared the windows might fall causing injury to people.
But this was not the end of the story - the windows were re-made from the artists original copies and plans stored in his archives in Rennes.

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We stopped in the village about 12.45 and as so often in France there is no one to be seen in the lunchtime hour/s! So it was a bit like visiting a deserted village.

We were able to wander around, take photographs inside and outside the church and visit the nearby attraction of the fountain and we were the only people to be seen there.

We saw several houses that looked as though they could be summer residences will ALL shutters firmly closed and elsewhere adverts attached to pretty flower bedecked holiday cottages. The small shop was closed and we found no cafe for a snack but plenty of nice places to picnic. That may just have been lunch time closing or perhaps businesses spring into life in high season.

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The Fountain of St Eloi stands in the field next to the village carpark across the road from the Church. The fountain once served as the village laundry where the women gathered to chatter and laugh while they did the washing and their the children played - so the plaque tells us.

The small seating area around the fountain dates fom the 12th Century when it was placed under the protection of St Eloi, the Patron Saint of blacksmith’s and horse doctors.
One of the famous Breton Pardons, in the name of St Eloi, is held in the village every year and the procession follows a route to the church which passes by the Fountain.

Standing nearby is a Stele to which the information plaque is attached. It is believed to date from the iron age, but nobody has yet discovered the secret of how it came to rest in Roscanvel.

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The church itself is small and of simple design but the luminous light cast by sun shining through the solid glass block windows creates a magical and peaceful effect which is not reflected in these photographs .

I do not think that anyone, with an interest in churches and religious art or not, could fail to be captivated by their effect.

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