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Origin and history

The church of Saint-Armel de Ploërmel, located in Morbihan in Brittany, is a Catholic building whose construction begins in the 15th century on the remains of a Romanesque sanctuary. Its sides, surmounted by false wooden crossovers adorned with liernes and thirdons, fall on sculpted crowlets, while the central nave is covered with a lambrissed cradle supported by de-engoulants and danges. The northern portal (circa 1530) marks the transition between late Gothic and Renaissance, with foothills mixing medieval and reborn candelabra motifs. This portal, one of the richest Breton iconographic programs of the late Middle Ages, has partially unincrypted inscriptions, including an engraved date (1533) on a vantail.

The church's history is marked by successive reconstructions: the collapse of the bell tower in 1508, the reconstruction of the building from east to west between 1511 and 1556, and the building of the bell tower between 1733 and 1741. Ranked a historic monument in 1840, it houses protected stained glass windows, restored between 1954 and 1970 by Jacques Bony after the damage of the Second World War. Among his treasures, the cenotaph of the Dukes John II and John III of Brittany occupies a central place: their gistors, initially placed in the church of the Carmelites, were moved several times (1591, Revolution) before being restored in 1820 by the General Council of Morbihan and installed in the church of Saint-Armel.

The interior architecture reveals a three-ship hall church, characteristic of the Breton buildings of the period. The lateral chapels (Saint-Armel, du Crévy) and the sacristy, built in the middle of the 15th century, are partially preserved. The panelling on the north side bears the signature of an artisan, Yves Thomas Jourdran, while undecrypted inscriptions remain on the north gate. The north-east sacristy, added in 1826, completes this ensemble of medieval heritage, Breton renaissance and modern restorations.

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