Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The calvary of the village of Tregastel, located in the Côtes-d-Armor, was built between February and August 1872 under the impulse of Abbé Jean-Jacques Bouchet (1804–77), parish priest. This project was part of a community-based approach aimed at uniting people around faith, involving them financially and physically. The building, erected on the hillside of Kreck-h-Lest, near the church, is distinguished by its rustic style and its integration into a chaos of local granite blocks, typical of the Pink Granite Coast. The spiral path, marked by statues of saints and sentences in Breton, leads to a platform supporting a monumental cross.

The original cross, struck by lightning in 1912, was destroyed, leaving intact only the torso of Christ in Kersanton granite, carved by Yves Hernot de Lannion. This fragment was later installed at the entrance of Sainte-Anne-des-Rochers Chapel. The present calvary, rebuilt after 1912, dominates a crypt chapel dedicated to Notre-Dame-de-Pitié. Among the statues preserved are those of a farmer on his knees, of the Sacred Heart (wood), as well as Saints Laurent, Joseph, Yves and François Xavier. The ensemble, marked by inscriptions in Breton, illustrates the evangelizing will of Abbé Bouchet and his anchor in local culture.

Ranked a historic monument on February 13, 2020, this calvary is considered a unicum in Brittany, both by its architecture and by its history linked to collective mobilization. Property of the municipality of Tregastel, it symbolizes both the popular piety of the nineteenth century and the geological identity of the region, with its pink granite. Its present state, although partially altered, reflects the persistence of Breton religious and craft traditions, as well as the ingenuity of local workshops such as that of Yves Hernot.

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