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Origin and history

The chapel Notre-Dame de Châteaulin, located on a schistose spur overlooking the Aulne in Finistère, finds its origins in the early thirteenth century. Built at the site of an ancient fortified point mentioned from the 10th century under the name of Nin Mountain, it was originally used as a parish church in Old Burgundy, a village now extinct. Its architecture, remodeled in the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries, reflects the stylistic evolutions of each era, while maintaining a harmonious unity characteristic of Breton art. Ranked a Historic Monument in 1914, it incorporates a complete parish enclosure with triumphal arch, ossuary and ordeal.

Lossuary, attached to the chapel in 1575 in a Louis XII style, housed the bones exhumed from the cemetery and church. The porch, rebuilt in 1722 with elements from the 16th century, has a commemorative inscription and lanterns typical of the Breton Renaissance. The Kersanton Stone Calvary, contemporary of Henri de Navarre (late 16th century), illustrates in the is a Last Judgment with apocalyptic symbols, while in the west it represents the Crucifixion. These elements, combined with the bell tower enhanced in 1753, testify to the religious and artistic vitality of the region.

Inside, three work campaigns (in particular in 1691 and 1722) shaped the present space, with a three-ship nave and a polygonal bedside. The retables of the seventeenth to eighteenth centuries, commanded by local brotherhoods, celebrate patron saints such as Our Lady of the Rosary or Saint Barbe. Among the treasures, the tomb of Jothane de Tresiguidy (†1324), Viscountess du Faou, discovered in 1860, recalls the links of the chapel with the Breton aristocracy. A 1664 painting, dedicated to the Crepin and Crepin saints, also highlights the importance of corporations (cordooners, tanners) in its history.

The chapel, declassified as a parish church in the late 17th century for the benefit of Saint-Idunet, underwent major restorations in the 19th (1860–62) and 20th centuries (1990s). Its enclosure, its surroundings (classified in 1942), and its carved elements make it a remarkable example of Breton religious heritage, mixing spiritual, memorial and community functions.

The calvary, with its partial inscription "GARDE... QUEIL FERA SELO(N) SES... JUDERA", would evoke a political warning linked to the conversion of Henry IV (1576), reflecting the religious tensions of the period in Brittany. The chapel, owned by the commune, remains a place of memory and devotion, open to the visit.

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