Sainte-Croix de Quimperlé Abbey is a former Benedictine abbey located in the town of Quimperlé, in the French department of Finistère, within the Brittany region.
According to popular tradition, it was founded in 1029 by Saint Gurloës, thanks to a donation from Alain Canhiart, Count of Cornouaille; in reality, the foundation probably took place between 1040 and 1050. It was one of Brittany's most powerful abbeys, with numerous priories and other outbuildings. Placed under the commende regime in 1553, the abbey declined somewhat, until it was taken over by the Congregation of Saint Maur in 1665.
The abbey was closed during the French Revolution. It had a large library, rich in ancient and precious manuscripts; this literary treasure was then looted and scattered. Only the Sainte-Croix de Quimperlé cartulary was saved from destruction by Le Guillou, a Quimperlé doctor. The abbey church became a parish church, and the conventual buildings were transformed into public buildings, housing the district court and the gendarmerie barracks. The church was listed as a historic monument in 1840, and the cloister in 1926.
However, the bell tower built on top of the rotunda by the Mauristes weakened the latter, and restoration work was unable to prevent its collapse on March 21, 1862, at noon. In its fall, it destroyed most of the church, leaving only the monks' choir and the crypt below intact. The building was rebuilt from 1864 onwards by diocesan architect Joseph Bigot, according to plans by Émile Boeswillwald.
The abbey church, built at the end of the 11th century, is a rare example of a Romanesque church with a centered plan; the only other example in Brittany is the rotunda at Lanleff. These plans were inspired by the rotunda of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. However, the present rotunda is merely a reconstruction of the earlier building. The monks' choir and crypt bear witness to the architectural quality of the original church. The original capitals can still be seen, as can the blind arcatures in the apse.
The church boasts a wealth of furnishings, including numerous objects protected as historic monuments. Some of these, such as the pulpit and high altar, were made for the newly rebuilt church in the second half of the 19th century; others, originating elsewhere, were subsequently installed here; still others remain from the original building, such as the tomb of Saint Gurloës in the crypt, and the furniture and wall decorations in the sacristy.
Location
The abbey is located in Quimperlé in the French department of Finistère. It lies at the confluence of the Isole and Ellé rivers, which form the Laïta, navigable to the sea some ten kilometers away. Thanks to the digging of moats that join the Ellé and Isole rivers, its territory is an artificial island, protected from the surrounding land. With the Laïta River serving as a port, and located on the main route between Quimper and Nantes, the religious establishment was at the heart of the development of the town of Quimperlé.
History
Foundation
Legend has it that Quimperlé Abbey is the successor to a pre-existing monastery founded in the 6th century by Gonthiern, an exiled British prince, at a place called Anaurot. This monastery was destroyed by the Normans in 878. The Count of Cornouaille Alain Canhiart (1029-1058), accompanied by his brother Orscand, Bishop of Cornouaille, founded the present abbey. The Quimperlé cartulary states that the abbey was founded on September 14, 1029, the day of the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, after an illness of the Count; however, this is probably a falsification in the context of a conflict with the Saint-Sauveur abbey in Redon, and the actual date of foundation is more likely to have been around 1045–1050.
However, it is certain that the church was restored in 1083, when the relics of the first abbot, Gurloes, a former monk of Redon who died in 1057, were raised in the crypt in a vain attempt to promote his cult: Pope Urban II was opposed to this cult, for lack of duly documented miracles. The sponsor of this work was undoubtedly Benoît, son of the founder Alain Canhiart, a former Landévennec monk who became abbot of the family foundation. By the end of the 11th century, the abbey had fourteen dependencies between Nantes and Concarneau, as well as possessions on Belle-Île-en-Mer. These possessions were the subject of a legal dispute with the abbey of Redon in the 1110s. At this time, the abbey of Sainte-Croix de Quimperlé was favored by bishop Robert.