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Origin and history

The chapel Saint-Guen de Vannes was an ancient Prioral chapel built in the 13th and 14th centuries for the monks of the Priory Saint-Guen, itself founded between 1025 and 1040 by the Duke Alain III of Brittany. This priory, dependent on the abbey of Saint-Gildas de Rhuys, would have traditionally welcomed Pierre Abélard in the 12th century, although this information is based on unconfirmed oral accounts. The chapel and the priory, sold as national property in 1791 during the Revolution, were destroyed at that time.

The chapel gate, the only vestige still visible, is an example of Gothic architecture with an ogival shape. It is decorated with an engraved shield representing a chevron and three drunken pieces, a symbol probably linked to its founders or protectors. Ranked a historic monument in 1939, this portal stands today in a park of Vannes, at the original location of the chapel. The church of Saint-Guen, built in the 1960s, now occupies the space of the former priory.

The chapel played a role in local religious history, especially in 1453, when the commissioners of the canonization trial of Vincent Ferrier stayed there to escape the plague ravaging Vannes. This place thus illustrates the links between Ducal power, monastic life and health context in medieval and modern Brittany. Its gate, a silent witness, recalls the importance of priories in the religious and architectural landscape of the region.

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