Our Blog - Lanhouarneau, France

The only thing we visited in Lanhouarneau was the church. While not specifically a "parish enclosure", it still had a few of the various requirements: specifically the church, cemetery, and ossuary. The church is dedicated to Saint Hervé, who was a 6th-century Breton saint. He had the power to cure animals and was accompanied by a domesticated wolf. Hervé used a donkey (or ox) to pull his plow but one day, his wolf ate the donkey (or ox). Hervé then preached a sermon that was so eloquent that the wolf begged to be allowed to serve in the donkey/ox's stead. Hervé's wolf pulled the plow from that day on. The Gothic bell tower, from the 14th century, is crowned with a large stone spire, which is flanked by four pinnacles, and rises above a platform with an openwork balustrade.

This is one of the statues in the entry porch, which is very similar to the other churches/parish enclosures. They statues all seem to have a similar look, with what looks to be a sash (in some other churches, you can still see the blue paint).

The building, which dates from the 16th century, is built on a plan in the form of a Latin cross. It has a nave and side aisles. It has the very typical rounded wooden roof, which is painted a shade of blue.

here we see Saint Hervé with his domesticated wolf by his side.

The majority of the stained glass windows of the church date from 1868.