Our Blog - Quéven, France

I didn't actually know that there was a town of Quéven, but I knew the name. When we first moved to Toulouse, we walked down Rue de Quéven to get to the gym. it seems there is a connection between Quéven and Toulouse based on an event in World War II. The Germans burned down the city in August 1944 and in January 1945, the city of Toulouse "adopted" the town to assist with the rebuilding. Toulouse named a street for the town, and town inaugurated Place de Toulouse. Population-wise, it must have either annexed other villages or became a big commuter-town for Lorient, because after World War II, the population was under 2,000 and by 2010, it was almost 8,800.

The first mention of a parish here was in 1382 but there hasn't been any documentation found about that church, but it most likely would have been smaller. In 1864, a new project starts to build a new church and the bell tower was modified in 1918. An interesting note was that after a first bombing in 1940, they restored the stained-glass windows that had been damaged. Unfortunately, the church was then destroyed in bombings in 1944 and had to be rebuilt again in 1964.

As you can see, the church plan is fairly typical with a nave and side aisles, with very Romanesque arches. the ceiling is not as high as some churches, but also not the typical lower wooden painted inverted-boat ceiling.

These statues were originally in the Chapelle de la Trinité. The first is polychrome wood from the 16th century and representes the martyrdom of Sainte Apolline. The second, also polychrome wood from the 16th century is a Pieta.

Not anything specific about this person, but just a general statement that as you go around certain places in France, you see quite a few of these plaques. It says that here, on August 18th, 1944, these two people (a doctor and a professor) were assassinated.

The Lavoir of Saint-Eloi was constructed in the 19th century but there was a fountain here that was part of the Chapel of Saint-Eloi back in the 16th century. The really shocking thing is that this public wash basin was used up until the year 2000!