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Origin and history

The Notre-Dame de la Merci church in Trémel, located in the Côtes-d'Armor, is a Gothic building built between the late 15th and early 16th centuries. It is distinguished by its three-sided polygonal bedside, inspired by the chapel Saint-Nicolas de Plfur, and its bell tower decorated with gargoyles and pinacles. Ranked a historic monument in 1910, it housed exceptional carved sandstones, an extinct jube, and seigneurial chapels such as the Kermerzit chapel, richly decorated.

The building of the church is attributed to Jean Guillou, the master of work whose name is engraved on a pillar, and financed by local noble families such as the Jordans (Kermerzit teachers) and the Reds (Trebriant teachers). These families had preeminence rights, visible through their coats of arms carved on the bedside and the sandstones. The building, dedicated to Our Lady of Merci, recalled the mission of redeeming the Christian captives by the Order of Merciaries, as once witnessed by the master window of the bedside.

The church has undergone several changes over the centuries: enlargement of the north side in 1876, addition of a sacristy at the end of the 17th century, and restoration of the panels and decorations painted in the 1890s. The southern porch, created at the end of the 16th century, housed a Secretariat and a sundial of 1635. In 1935 Xavier de Langlais installed there an expressionist cross path, now destroyed.

On June 21, 2016, a fire ravaged the church, destroying the 16th century structure, carved sandstones, and irreplaceable works such as the Way of the Cross and an 18th century eagle-lutrin. Only the statues of the apostles of the south porch and the Virgin of the gate, dating from the 16th century, were saved. The reconstruction, completed in 2022, restored the building while preserving its iconic Gothic elements such as the bedside and the tower.

Trémel, initially a truce of the parish of Prestin, became an independent commune in 1838. The church, the centre of religious and social life, was surrounded by a placister comprising an ossuary and a calvary. Local lords, like Yvon Jourdain (married in 1481), played a key role in its foundation, reflecting their power through heraldic decorations and private chapels.

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