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Origin and history

The chapel Notre-Dame de Pitié, located at Locmaria in Ploemel (Morbihan), has its origins in the 14th century under the impetus of the Broérec family. She installed a family vault under the choir, which had now disappeared, and laid there in 1340 the carved tombstone of Pierre de Broérec, who died in Saumur during the Hundred Years War. The latter, a member of the Breton army allied with Philippe VI de Valois, was repatriated with his tuffeau funerary slab, richly decorated.

The present building, built at the end of the 15th century, preserves only the nave of an initially larger chapel. The current bedside corresponds to the old chancel wall, whose diaphragm arch was filled. The choir, which was abolished in 1830, revealed the tombstone of Pierre de Broérec. The chapel, rectangular with three vessels, has broken arches and an apparent frame with chamfered punches. Its western portal, adorned with faces and crosses, evokes the chapel of the Loc in Saint-Avé.

Ranked a historic monument in 1927, the chapel was a private property until the Revolution, linked to the manor house of Locmaria. Its enclosure, including a cemetery disappeared in 1875, and a 17th-century fountain (Fetan ar Velean) completed the whole. The lower sides, separated by double-roll arches, and the remains of anthropomorphic supports in the bedside testify to its architectural evolution.

The nave, the only remaining element after the demolition of the choir between 1811 and 1830, still houses the funeral slab of Pierre de Broérec. The chapel, originally called Our Lady of Mercy or Mercy, was associated with a priory with a house called the Hospital, surrounded by a closed garden. Its status as a domestic chapel lasted until the 19th century, marked by partial reconstructions in the 14th–15th centuries.

Subsequent changes include the resumption of the north window in the 16th century and the addition of a modern western oculus. The monolithic fountain, excavated by a gutter feeding a circular basin, and the remains of the crypt under the old choir recall its funeral and religious use. The diaphragm arches visible on the current eastern wall underline the original separation between nave and choir.

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