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Origin and history

The chapel Saint-Sauveur de Coadry, located in Scaër in Finistère, finds its origins in a legend of the 10th century. According to her, a local lord, the Count of Trévalot, promised to build a chapel after his victory against a rival. Two oxen, left free, stopped near a ruined pagan temple, designating the location of the building. From the beginning of the work, miracles were reported: the disappearance of briers, the emergence of a source with healing virtues, and the appearance of the "stones of Coadry", sacred talismans supposed to protect against various ills. These stones, sold to pilgrims, made the chapel a place of great devotion.

In the 12th century, the chapel was burned by the populace, who accused pilgrims of a shortage. The "crossstones" were scattered to Coray by smoke. Two centuries later, the site was dedicated to Christ, and pilgrimages resumed fervently. The chapel, initially dependent on the Templars, passed under the protection of the Hospitallers of Saint John after the dissolution of the order, until the Revolution. Its nave, dating from the 11th century, and its choir from the 14th or 15th century, illustrate its architectural evolution, mixing Romanesque and Gothic styles.

Saint-Sauveur Chapel was listed as a historical monument on 17 May 1933. Its roof was restored in 1947, and a safeguard committee, created in 1984, obtained funding for works started in 1986. The site, surrounded by a wooded placister, houses a 19th century calvary and two archaic granite crosses. Inside, a 26-room baroque statuary, 19th-century frescoes telling about the life of Christ in Breton, and beams painted with weapons from the benefactory families testify to his rich heritage.

Pardons, celebrated in the 19th century, attracted the faithful to plenary or partial indulgences. The forgiveness of the Blessed Sacrament took place on the second Sunday after Pentecost, and on the fourth Sunday in September. The chapel, once a high place of devotion, preserves a funeral plaque dating from 1646, commemorating a marquise de la Roche, linked to the nearby castle of Trévalot, now extinct.

The architecture of the chapel reflects its many construction campaigns. The Romanesque nave, four-spanned, opens on bottoms with arches in the middle. The Gothic-style choir features ogival arcades and filled windows. The bell tower, mounted on the western gable in the late 15th or early 16th century, was partially restored in the 18th century. This blend of styles, combined with its furniture and legends, makes it an emblematic monument of Breton heritage.

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