Calvary at Guimiliau
Calvaire de Guimiliau
Interesting facts
- Around 200 carved figures crowd the calvary's 37 scenes, an unusually dense cast even by the standards of Brittany's great calvaries.
- It is said to be the only Breton calvary that shows the risen Christ meeting two disciples on the road to Emmaus.
- Carving took most of the 1580s: the date 1581 appears on the east side, and 1588 is cut beside the Virgin in the Adoration of the Magi.
- According to legend, Katell Gollet was a young woman who took the devil as her lover and stole a consecrated host for him, which sent her to hell.
- In the Last Supper scene, ten disciples sit behind the table while Judas, holding the purse of his betrayal, sits at one end.
- The Crowning with Thorns shows four soldiers at once pressing the crown of thorns down onto Christ's head.
- One corner shows Christ leading souls out of Limbo, an episode from apocryphal tradition rather than the Gospels.
- The cycle covers far more than the Passion, running from the Nativity and the Adoration of the Magi through to the Resurrection.
Why it is worth it
Guimiliau is a small village in the Finistère countryside, yet its parish close around the church of Saint-Miliau is one of the finest in Brittany, and its calvary is often called the most populous of them all. Carved in the 1580s, with the date 1581 inscribed above the altar on its east side, it packs around three dozen scenes from the life and death of Christ onto an octagonal base, turning a block of stone into a crowded open-air picture book for a congregation that mostly could not read.
The structure follows the Breton pattern: arched buttresses at the corners, each holding one of the evangelists with his symbol, a frieze of smaller figures in high relief running round the base, and larger statues carved in the round standing on the platform above. A small stair on one buttress let the priest climb up and preach from among the scenes he was describing. The main cross, sculpted in Kersanton stone, shows angels catching Christ's blood, with back-to-back figures of the Virgin, Saint Peter, Saint John and Saint Yves on the crosspiece; its upper part was broken in a storm in 1902 and recarved by Yann Larhantec.
What makes Guimiliau memorable is the life in its crowds. In the procession to Calvary, led by a horseman, soldiers beat a drum and blow trumpets while one leans spitefully on the cross to make it heavier; they wear the armour and costume of the Wars of the League, the religious wars of the time, which brought Spanish troops to Brittany. At the washing of the feet, Christ kneels with his sleeves rolled up, scrubbing Peter's foot while the disciples look on in embarrassment. On the west side the sleeping guards of the resurrection lie among their scattered weapons, one still clutching a wine jug, and nearby the legendary Katell Gollet is dragged towards the mouth of hell by demons.
The calvary is best seen as part of the whole close, which also includes a triumphal gateway once opened only for weddings and funerals, an ossuary chapel and the richly furnished church. The ensemble is protected as a historic monument, and the calvary itself was restored in 1881 and cleaned of lichen in 2009.
Getting there
The close stands in the centre of Guimiliau, about 16 km from Morlaix by road. Brest Bretagne Airport (BES) is about 32 km away. The parish close of Saint-Thégonnec is roughly 5 km to the north-east.
Plan your visit
We have no confirmed visit data yet. Once it is confirmed, this block also carries the date it was checked.
Nearby places
- Calvary at Saint-Thégonnec 5.2 km · wayside-shrine
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
The Calvary at Guimiliau, completed in 1588, is located in Guimiliau, Brittany, in northwestern France. It is part of the Guimiliau "enclos paroissial".
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