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Origin and history

The dovecote of the Manor of Lesmoal, located in Plounerin in the Côtes-d This circular granite building, 12 metres high, is distinguished by its corbelled vault and its lantern supported by five balusters. Originally integrated into the manor property via an alley, it is now separated by departmental road No.56. Its interior retains a bell structure with about 500 pigeon holes (bulbs) arranged in quinconce on 21 rows, as well as a circular grain table. The door, surmounted by an armored lintel, displays the weapons of the De Meur families and the second wife of Morice Meur, identified during the preeminences of 1679.

The dovecote was built between 1547, the year Morice Meur married Julienne de Quelen, and 1587, the date of his death. The lantern, added in the seventeenth century, crowns the building with an external diameter of 8.5 meters. Ranked Historic Monument in 1997, it illustrates the prestige of local lords, able to build utility buildings both functional and aesthetic. The associated mansion, sold as a national good during the Revolution, had remarkable elements such as an inner fountain and a screw staircase.

The coat of arms visible on the lintel, described as "4 rockets in fascice to the leader charged with 6 cakes", confirm the membership of the family Le Meur, owner since 1540. This dovecote, one of the most beautiful in the Trégor, bears witness to the techniques of construction in granite opus and the symbolic importance of dovecotes in the Breton seigneurial organization. Its state of preservation makes it possible to observe rare details, such as granite slabs forming larme or the central column of the grain table.

The physical separation from the mansion, due to the creation of the departmental road, did not alter its heritage value. The curved bolts, carved in squared bellows, and the ten-pointed vault underline an exceptional craftsmanship. The site, although located with medium accuracy (level 6/10), remains an emblematic example of Brittany's 16th and 17th century rural architecture.

The contract for the sale of the mansion in Year IV (1796) mentions a typical interior distribution (kitchen, room, living room on the ground floor; rooms and attices on the floor), but the dovecote retains its original use intact. The commissioners of 1679 had already raised the coat of arms of Lesmoal in the church of Plounerin, confirming the high social status of its sponsors.

Today, the Lesmoal dovecote, isolated but protected, attracts attention by its truncated plane and its summital oculus. The materials (granit in large apparatus) and the dimensions (heavy wall of 1.24 m) reflect a desire for durability, while the 500 bolts recall its economic role in the breeding of pigeons, reserved for the aristocracy under the Old Regime.

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