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Origin and history

The chapel Saint-Nicolas-des-Eaux, located in Pluméliau in Morbihan, dates from the first quarter of the 16th century. It was built thanks to the gifts of the Kerveno family, whose weapons adorn the inner and outer sandstones. An inscription in the choir, "JEHAN LAYEC FIST LE BOYS DE CESTE The AN M Vc XXIIII" (1524), confirms this period. The monument adopts a Latin cross plan, with a flat bedside illuminated by a lily-flowered bay, and a south door in a braid. Architectural traces suggest the projected existence of a seigneurial chapel in the north, never completed.

The chapel was originally the seat of a priory dependent on the Benedictine abbey Saint-Florent-le-Viel de Saumur, as evidenced by donations dated 1120 (land, cemetery, mill) ratified by Morvan, bishop of Vannes. Over the centuries, the priory passed under the authority of the abbeys of Saint-Sauveur of Redon and then of Saint-Gildas-de-Rhuys. From the 16th century, secular priests replaced the monks as patrons. The chapel then became a truce of Pluméliau, an ecclesiastical status intermediate between parish and simple chapel.

The building has remarkable architectural features: a drop in the roof between the transept and the south arm, suggesting a slightly posterior construction campaign, and sandstones carved with naive motifs in the choir and transepts. Two skulls embedded in the north wall, as well as a gate geminied to the west (typical of the "Morbihanese portal"), add to its mystery. In 1830, modifications were made to install a retable, some of which remain (altar, tabernacle). A sacristy was added in the 19th century in the northeast corner.

Classified as a Historical Monument by decree of 13 February 1928, the chapel illustrates the religious and artistic heritage of medieval and modern Brittany. Its history combines seigneurial donations, monastic life, and liturgical adaptations, while preserving tangible traces of its architectural transformations. The stone masonry in the south wall could bear witness to a collapse followed by a reconstruction, while the stone waiting for the square of the transept evokes a jube never realized.

Today, owned by the municipality of Pluméliau-Bieuzy, the chapel remains a valuable testimony of the links between local nobility (family of Kerveno), Benedictine clergy, and parish community. Its state of preservation, although marked by alterations (such as the stake of the bedside consoles in 1830), allows us to study the evolution of religious practices and constructive techniques in Brittany between the Middle Ages and the modern era.

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