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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The Priory of Saint-Cado, originally named Notre-Dame-du-Mont or Priory of Kerléano, was founded around 1190 by the Duchess Constance of Brittany as a dependency of the Abbey of Notre-Dame du Nid-au-Merle. This priory of women, located on the left bank of the Reclus Creek in Auray (Morbihan), housed nuns until they recalled to the mother house around 1240. Only the chapel, one house and two agricultural outfits, managed by priories until the Revolution, survived.

The present chapel, dedicated to St.Cadou, was rebuilt at the end of the 16th century in a flamboyant Gothic and Renaissance style, as evidenced by its sculpted portal and its rampants decorated with animals. Conventual buildings, adjacent to the south of the chapel, were complete. Confiscated as national property in 1790, part of the land was acquired by the Cadoudal family, a notable figure in the Breton cabbage industry.

The chapel was listed as a Historic Monument and was registered by arrest on 29 May 1937, followed by the other buildings and two trees of the square on 4 December 1945. The site illustrates the religious architectural evolution in Brittany, between the Middle Ages and the modern era, as well as the upheavals linked to the Revolution. Today it is owned by the commune of Auray and retains traces of its monastic and seigneurial past.

Among the attested priorages, Guillemette Le Prévost (1502–1516) and Marguerite de Montbourcher (1570) marked the transition between the medieval period and the Renaissance. The chapel, rectangular, presents a nave with committed columns, typical of the Breton religious buildings of that time. The sculptures of the portal, combining Gothic and Renaissance motifs, reflect the artistic influences of the late 16th century.

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