The sunken city of Is (Kemper-Cape Ra)
We drive for some time along the English Channel. Sandy beaches give way to rocks. And again sandy beaches.
And here is the department of Finistè re - "the end of the earth. " This word has fascinated me for a long time. I wanted to see this very "end". Further, already in the Atlantic, only the ominous island of Ouessant, near which one of the worst environmental disasters of the 20th century once occurred (more than 200 thousand tons of oil spilled from the Amoco Cadiz tanker).
The most distinctive department of the most non-French province. Until now, from pure Breton, I heard only a piper on the Rue Dinant. Wonderful bonnets seen only on postcards. The unfamiliar names of the settlements of the Pink Granite Coast did not demonstrate anything traditional.
a medieval street named after a bard from the 11th century
We need to cross Finistè re to the Bay of Biscay. It seems that we have turned south towards the mountains of Arre near Morlaix. Later, when I returned home and searched for those places that were really Breton, I realized that just a few dozen kilometers west of Morlaix is the "Road of parish temples", which distinguishes Brittany from the rest of France from a religious point of view. Those who were there described an amazing phenomenon - calvers. And south of Quimper, where we are heading, is Begoudin with the highest bonnets of the national costume in Brittany.
Breton bonnets
We arrived at Kemper, which was not included in the program. The hotel is transit. But the Maluans advised me to see the crooked cathedral of Kemper, the guide also painted the wonderful city of King Gradlon. I ask the receptionist "is it far to the center with the cathedral"? She answers “30 minutes on foot”, draws the road on the plan. Not a problem, but it's already evening. You need to get back before dark, otherwise you won’t find an Ibis hotel among some hangars. I'm persuading a couple of ladies to walk for the company. The road was long and uneven. We crossed the railway line without moving away from the banks of the Ode River (it was more difficult for me to navigate back, because we returned at dusk in a different way).
The founding of the city is associated with one of the most famous legends of France - about the sunken city of Is. The Cornuay Peninsula, of which Quimper is the capital, is strongly influenced by the open Atlantic. Here, in Finistè re, the Ocean rules. Perhaps that is why it was in these parts that the legend of the sunken city was once born (or maybe this is not a legend, but a real event? ).
In the 5th century, King Gradlon ruled in these places. They say that in his youth he traveled to the British Isles and took out a red-haired beauty and a horse from there. Arriving in Armorica, the queen died, leaving her husband a daughter, Dau, who was born at sea. The king spoiled her, and she grew up absurd and licentious, but as amazing a beauty as her dead mother. The daughter controlled the father, who was subordinate to her. She had some strange mystical connection with the sea.
She persuaded her father to build a city on the shore. To protect it from the sea, a pier with a lock was built, and behind it a large port where ships called. The king kept the key to the lock. Closest to all the buildings was the palace, and Gradlon's daughter could look out of the window at her beloved sea, go ashore. She called herself the bride of the Ocean.
The ocean threw ships ashore. Their teams became slaves, and the goods went to the city. The city grew rich, and the inhabitants were mired in vices. Worshiped in the city only beloved by the royal daughter of the sea. Celebrations were held in his honor. On them, Dau chose the men she liked. Those who spent the night with her, then disappeared forever. There were rumors that in the morning they were thrown into the sea.
But one day the royal daughter fell in love. The ocean outside the walls of the palace began to bubble and rage like a jealous husband. Dau, in some kind of madness, rushed to the gateway and opened it with the key taken from her father. The ocean broke into the city.
Dau ran to her father's quarters, told her father that the sea had broken through the dam. Together they mounted a horse, once brought by the king from the British Isles, and rushed out of the city. The ocean was chasing its bride, and the fast horse was already galloping over the waves. A voice came from the cliff, ordering to throw the girl off the horse. It was Saint Gwenole. The king shuddered, but did not want to leave his daughter. Suddenly, among the waves, under the hooves of a horse, he saw men killed and drowned by his daughter in the bay and recognized them. The king was horrified, pointed to the drowned daughter. Dau's hands, frozen from the water, did not hold her back, she fell from her horse into the water. The ocean immediately began to calm down, and the king managed to leave. The city of Is remained flooded. (Another version of this legend can be read in Maupassant's story "In Brittany". )
Not far from the places where the city of Ys used to be, on the site of the present Quimper, Saint Corentin (one of the seven saints of Brittany) founded his monastery. The king, exhausted by misfortunes, went to him. There he converted to Christianity and settled in a monastery. The city gradually grew around. In order not to confuse it with other settlements starting with "Quemper-", somewhere from the 11th century before the revolution, it bore the double name "Quemper-Corentin".
Real Camper has been a trading place since Roman times. The long mouth of the Ode allowed shelter from storms. Then the city was chosen as the residence of the bishop.
In Breton, the name of the city Quimper means "confluence of rivers". This is actually where the River Steyr flows into the Ode. The latter flows through the city, its mouth widens into the so-called aber, and it flows a few kilometers from Quimper into the Bay of Biscay. The historical part is compact, well preserved and easy to see. Alas, I didn't have time for that. Therefore, I ran only to the Cathedral of St. Corentin and walked around him.
St. Corentin's Cathedral
The current Gothic cathedral was built in the first half of the 13th century by order of Bishop Renault on the site of an old Romanesque church. This cathedral has one peculiarity: its nave is curved to the left by 10°. The hypotheses are different. For example, this: when the Romanesque church began to be rebuilt and enlarged, the space from the north was already built up with houses, they were not demolished. Another says that on the other side of the church there was a low bank of the Ode River with unstable soils, so the nave was simply turned. The towers of the cathedral were completed in the 19th century, because. at the beginning of the 17th century, the cathedral was badly damaged during a fire. Between them is an equestrian statue of the legendary King Gradlon on the horse that took him out of the flooded city of Is. During the revolution, the statue of the XV century. from lead has been lost. In the 19th century, it was restored from stone. The cathedral today is a place of religious ceremonies, the main of which (August 5) is associated with seven Breton saints.
Curved nave
The episcopal palace adjoins the cathedral from the south, which today houses the Brittany Museum. Its current building dates back to the 17th century; exhibits: archaeological collection, folk costumes, decorative art of Finistè re.
In the Middle Ages, the bishop was also the head of the walled city. The palace of the Dukes of Breton was on the other side of the Steyr. The two authorities were sometimes at enmity, sometimes acted jointly. The “Ducal Land” included the palace of justice, the prison, the mill and public ovens (today the area of the Ducal Land Square near the Church of St. Mathieu). Later, the monastery of the Ursulines was built there, which today houses a media library. There is also the Cornuy Theater and the Center for Contemporary Art.
In the 19th century, civil municipal government appeared. Today, the city hall building is located on the square near the northern facade of the cathedral. Nearby is the Museum of Fine Arts (presented: works of the Impressionists who were in Brittany; drawings by Cocteau, Dore; there is a hall dedicated to the poet and artist Max Jacob, a native of these places; artists of the local Pont-Aven school). The square is named after R. Laennec, the inventor of the statoscope, whose monument is located there.
The main street (Kereon) departs from the western faç ade, where you can still see many half-timbered houses of the 17th century. The street goes towards the "Ducal Land".
Kereon Street
On the square in front of the cathedral, one of the buildings is decorated with faience. Camper faience is known not only in Brittany, it is collected all over the world. It has been produced since the beginning of the 18th century. There is a faience museum in the city (in the building of the first factory for its production - in the Lokmaria quarter). Many souvenir shops sell products made from local faience. He is five-colored; the motifs are mostly religious and traditional.
camper faience
The Romanesque church of Our Lady of the 11th-12th centuries has been preserved from the former abbey of Lokmaria. There is also a Benedictine priory (XVII-XVIII centuries) with gardens. There are many gardens in the city, it is one of the cities with the “blooming” sign.
The low bridges across the Ode also deserve attention.
one of the bridges across the Ode
In July, the festival of the land of Cornuai takes place (since 1923). The holiday begins with a performance at the Kornuay theater, then a procession in national costumes with folk instruments (among which, of course, the bagpipe) passes through the city. And at the end, those who wish can dance the gavotte (well, the one that dances at the end of the cartoons about Asterix).
Music weeks are also a special feature. The music is mostly French classical.
In the morning we leave Quimper further west to Cape Ra, which is located on the coast of Douarnenez Bay. Therefore, we once again returned to Quimper, and I was able to go inside the cathedral.
If you stand on Cape Ra facing the Atlantic, then on the right in the north there will be a bay of the Drowned or the Dead. It was on the shore of this bay that the legendary city of Is was located. The nearby pond is considered the port of this legendary city. Many dead sailors and fishermen were indeed found in this bay. This is due to the fact that there is a very rough current between the cape and the island of Seine (up to 15 m / s), and the bottom of the west of Brittany is dotted with rocks.
Our Lady of the Drowned
In a row to the island of Seine and to the right - towards Ouessant, the sea is strewn with lighthouses. There is a lighthouse on the shore near Cape Ra (the entrance to the territory is closed, as it is written on the gate; between the lighthouse and the ocean is a statue of Our Lady of the Drowned), further into the sea is the “Old Woman” lighthouse, then another one on a rock, and far away, already on an island Sen is another one. But still, swimming in these places today is fraught with great difficulties.
lighthouses and Saint Island
Saint Island is low in the distance, often flooded by the waters of the Atlantic. It is quite difficult to get to it even today. But the residents do not want to leave it. Legends say that nine prophetesses of ancient Armorica once lived on it. They calmed the waves with their songs. This island is also associated with the Morgan fairies, born from the sea. It is said that the daughter of King Gradlon Dau was also a sea fairy. And after her death, the absurd girl causes storms, sinks ships and sailors, but can also calm the sea.
