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Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The chapel of Notre-Dame-de-Berven, located in Plouzeved in Finistère, was built between 1567 and 1575 by the workshop of the castle of Kerjean, as evidenced by the inscriptions preserved. The building consists of a nave with a low side, a transept covered with panelling, and a choir lined with a carved wooden fence (1601). Its bell tower, completed in 1576, has an openwork upper part surmounted by a dome and bell towers. A sandstone dated 1573 and an inscription on the north wall (1580) specify the construction stages, while the sandstones of the choir, engraved in 1605, mention the fascicians Laurent Brezel and Yves Gyader, cleric of the parish.

The chapel was a place of pilgrimage renowned for its miraculous virtues, including the ability to make children walk early, according to a tradition involving three towers of the building on three consecutive Mondays. The triumphal arch (17th century), decorated with three arches with Corinthian columns, marks the entrance to the designated cemetery. Nearby, the sacred fountain of Notre-Dame-de-Berven, surrounded by an enclosure and surmounted by an edicle with hemispheric cap, houses a statue of the Virgin with the Child. A cross was added in 1936. These elements, classified between 1909 and 1968, highlight the heritage and spiritual importance of the site.

The building reflects the Breton religious art of the Renaissance, combining sculptures on wood, walled architecture and Marian symbols. The closing of the jube (1601) and the choir sandstones (1605) illustrate the continuity of the work at the beginning of the seventeenth century, under the auspices of the local fascicians. Communal property since its classification as a Historical Monument, the chapel embodies both an artistic heritage and a popular memory, linked to the devotional beliefs and practices of the Ancien Régime Brittany.

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