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Key figures

Origin and history

The Commanderie de Carentoir, founded around 1182 according to a controversial charter attributed to Duke Conan IV of Brittany (died 1171), settled on lands named Karantoe (village des Couvreurs), in connection with local slate quarries. The Templars built a church and a command office there, which became the principal of Brittany, controlling many institutions of the order. The document of 1182, although apocryphal, detailed their Breton possessions and legitimated their presence, while the Dukes centralized their power. Today, only the Romanesque arch separating the choir from the nave remains from that time.

After the dissolution of the Templars in 1307, the commandary passed to the Hospitallers of the Order of St John of Jerusalem, maintaining its central role. The local tradition tells that the Templars of Carentoir were massacred near an oak, halfway towards the chapel of Fondolean, contrary to the usual arrests. The church, dedicated to Saint John, houses a gissant unique in France: a Templar knight or hospital sculpted in wood, nicknamed Tomb of the Templar or Saint Dormant.

The organisation of the commandery, little documented before the 13th century, reveals a hamlet structured around three streets and a common oven, configuration still visible today. The possessions of Carentoir extended to several chapels and churches in the surrounding area, such as Notre-Dame de Brehardec (Questembert) or the Temple of Haut (Limerzel). Among the known commanders are Gilles du Buisson (1624), Siméon Bouchereau (1738), and Claude Le Normand (1776), the last being Des Valettes in 1790.

Abandoned as a regular place of worship, the church was recently restored in its original form. His votive objects, laying him in wood and furniture were preserved. Open to the public in the summer, it attracts visitors for its templar history and exceptional medieval heritage, although the offices are rare, occasionally performed by the priest of Carentoir.

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